Happy Birthday to My Twinkie

Birthday Blogging continues. I enjoy the birthday blog - it is a great way to get to write a little something about the people i know and to let them know that they are special. Most of us may be beyond the age at which we are allowed to throw crazy princess parties and make a huge deal out of our birthdays, but a little specialness is OK.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Amanda young is one of my work friends, but she is so much more than that. Amanda started working at ERDC a little over two years ago. When she started out she was doing graphic design and video-ography. That made her different from the other women I work with! We hit it off from the get go. I'm not sure why we became such good friends, although the fact that she was in the office directly next door probably didn't hurt. The reason doesn’t matter - but we were fast friends and great friends!

It is hard to summarize my favorite things about Amanda, because she is such a good friend and a good person. One of my favorite things is that she is a really kinds, and extremely nice person. Whenever I'm down she is able to bring me up, be it through telling me it will get better, empathizing with a similar story to show me how it will get better, or just plain listening! More importantly, Amanda is a computer person. As well as being a graphics person, she knows computers. As a result, she knows computer humor. She loves geek humor, and is forever sending me great forwards and links to crazy gadgets! She is also one of the few people who truly loves the despair.com de-motivators as much as I do.

Amanda is always able to crack me up. Some of my favorite stories about her actually involve the crazy punishments her mom cooked up when she was little. Now that we are adults these things are funny to us. She slammed her door one time too many and angered her mom. Her mom's solution was taking the door off of the hinges for several weeks. THAT is the way to teach a lesson. You know she doesn't slam doors any more. I have to admit that another favorite thing about Amanda is her daughter - Virginia turned 1 year old in October, and she is as cute as a button! Amanda and her husband are huge animal lovers - they have a handful of cats and a big "kitty kat" known as Allie the rescued greyhound.

Another favorite story comes from a few months back. I had been unpacking some stuff and came across some class pictures from grade school. I was showing them to her, and she pointed to one of the girls and said: That girl is me. You know she was pointing at a younger Sarah! We are scarily similar in too many ways!

Happy Birthday Amanda, I'm happy to be back in Vicksburg to hang out with you this year!

Man Up your Tree

Today was our Christmas party for my branch at work. I always enjoy the work party because my coworkers are so great. Since I'm not going to Fox Lake for Christmas, all of these parties are sort of my "Christmas". We had some YUMMY food as usual. We always worry about there not being enough, and somehow there is always a ton. Terry and Mike, two of our technicians, fry up turkeys in the morning, and the bossmen donated a ham. Then, everyone brought a ton of food. I tried two new recipes, both of which made me happy. Some peach glazed sweet potatoes with a praline topping and an cranberry apple walnut stuffing. Just thinking about them makes me hungry again. We always have so much food that the desert table barely gets touched, and it is always full of good stuff. You hate to see it go home uneaten.

The best part of the Christmas party is the gift giving. We used to just have a party and eat and socialize with one antoher and with our families. A few years back we decided to liven things up wtih a gift exchange. Anyone who wants to puts their name in the hat, and we draw names. There are no rules - except that everyone is encouraged to remember that it is a family affair and there may be young children present. In years past we have had some great gifts - people are always making fun of one another!

This year, I drew Haley Bell's name. Haley is two doors down, and the littlest, cutest thing there is is! She is also sweet as can be. A few months back she and her husband took their puppy to get her hair cut. The groomer accidentaly gota little friendly with the sciessors - Wrigley came back shaved nearly naked! Haley and Matt were definitely traumatized by this! She was not the prettiest looking dog at that time. I got Haley some Rogaine for Women to Wrigley get back to normal next time!

Oddly enough, Haley drew my name! I had been telling her how girly my trees were, so she helped me to man up my tree. I am now the owner of a Merman Hottie for my tree! It is too funny!!! Good times were had by all.

The best gift by far was Jeb's princess kit for Lucy's new castle. Lucy and her husband just bought a HUGE house. Jeb decided that all girls want to be princesses, and she HAD just bought a castle, so he bought her a bunch of princess sutff! Good Stuff. There was also a great Yoda Poem and light Saber for Lora (a huge star wars fan), and big buck hunting kit for Tim Rushing (who shot a tiny tiny one this year), a non-blonde kit to help Gail get some respect around the office, and the traditional gifts that are re-gifted every year!

All in all, an A+ party!

oh Christmas Tree Part Deux

I finally remembered my Christmas tree for my desk. Now the hall is really decked!

(and yes, my office really that messy)

oh Christmas Tree!

It has been a while since I updated the blog. here are some highlights. I cleaned out the trunck, and bit the bullet. i went and got a Christmas tree. I had to get the real deal, because I'm one of THOSE people. I wound up getting an 8 footer, and paying an arm and a leg for it. The Home Depot had nasty trees, and I refuse to buy mine from Walley WOrld. I wound up buying it from the Optimist Club. IT was definitely more expensive, but defintiely worth it. The money goes to charity - they support the youth and other local charitable organization. Plus, they trimmed the tree, helped me tie it up in my car, and if I had brought my stand they would have put it in the stand. Yes, somehow I fit an 8 ft. tree into my camry.
I spent last week putting the tree up and cleaning hosue and cooking for the big Housewarming/Christmas/Late Birthday party. I don't know the last time my house looked that good. It probably didn't even look that good when i moved in. I spent Friday night baking and putting ornaments on the tree. Thus far we haven't had any puppy-tree issues. keep your fingers crossed!

The tree is very girly. I have a ton of girly ornaments. There are three or four different shoe ornaments, a number of dressed up girls, a tutu, and any number of other girly things. I love it! It is quite ME,

The party Saturday went well. We had about the right sized crowd. The food was yummy. THe menu was:
Lasagne
Rigatoni and Sausage with a Pumpkin Cream Sauce
Salad
Breadsticks
Tomato, Spinache, and Potato Soup
Spinach Dip and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus for Snacking.
and Christmas Cookies for desert!
Folks brought a ton of drinks as well as some yummies to add to the pile of food. I've now got enough drinks to have three more parties, so come on over folks!

I've posted a picture of the christmas tree. You can sort of see part of the Thanksgiving paint job too! Soon I'll get back on the painting band wagon and get more done.

Congratulations Abby Palko, ABD

Major Congrats go out to my cousin Abby Palko, ABD. Abby is a graduate student in comparitive literature (i think) at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. She is also the mother of a beautiful 6 mo. old baby girl. This week Abby passed her oral defense of her dissertation proposal. So, she has passed her classes and written her proposal, giving her the official designation of "All But Dissertation" (ABD). Let's have a big round of applause for her - it is not exactly easy to do in the first place, let alone when there is an adoreable!

This picture is from Nora's Christening this summer. Mommy and Aunt Jen did a great job of matching but Nora doesn't seem as interested in the camera as they do.

Let's go Bowling

Excellent news - the Illini earned a bid to the Rose Bowl. I'm jealous. I want to go. If anyone wants to head to CA for New Years - My grandparents live in San Diego. Free Rose Bowl Housing!!!


Today, big Kudos go to Ernest. I work with Ernest, and he recently finished up her PhD from Purdue. He came by my office this morning with a can of rose scented air freshner that he bought and used around the office last time Purdue went to the Rose BOwl. He thought I might want to make sure all of theMS State fans knew who was Rose Bowl Bound! Ernest you are cool!

You Say it's your Birthday

IT"S MY BIRTHDAY TOO.

Happy Birthday me and a bunch of other people.

TOday is Julie Kelley's Birthday. I work with Julie here in Mississippi. She is an amazing woman. She started out her life as a nurse, and althought I did not know her then, I imagine she was a great nurse. SHe has a great personality - just as sweet as can be. I know she must have a mean side since she raised a couple of kids, but I can't imagine it. Midway through her career she decided to do a little change - and now she is a geologist! It doesn't get much more 180 degrees than that! THe most impressive thing is that she has deployed overseas a couple of times to help our soldiers in country. It is such a honorable thing to do, and even more difficult when you have a family back at home to think about.

Today is also the 13th birthday of Michael Mason. Michael is the son of my friend, work next door neighbor, and up the street at home neighbor Gail. Michael is an all around nice guy, and a huge dog lover. He has watched my pup while I've traveled, and for that I am eternally grateful!

Happy Birthday Julie, Michael and me.

Excuses Excuses...

It has been a while since I last updated, so I felt the need to place my excuse out there in electronic land. My sister came to town last week. While she was here, she broke my internet - it won't work with my laptop or my work computer. So, I'm writing this at home with the intent to upload it when I go into work tomorrow. Obviously, this is far more interesting that doing work stuff at home - and nothing on the tv is calling my name at all, let alone loudly.

Actually, sitting here with the radio on, in my comfortable "at home" clothes with the dogs next to me/on the floor, I am really comfortable. I could actually probably get a lot of work done here!!! Too bad I don't have internet. So, here are some short recaplets of this that need to be put out in my e-world.

Over the Hill + One

Monday 26 November we said Happy Birthday to my mom, Liz. As I understand, she is petitioning to be called Elizabeth. It is a difficult change for me make. Last year my mom had a special, rather large and important birthday. We threw her a surprise party - and somehow she was surprised. We rented out the clubhouse next to the pool at my parent's subdivision. We invited in a bunch of people, and somehow she didn't figure it out. I drove up from Champaign and introduced my parents to their first furry grandchild. My sister flew in from Rhode Island - but she stayed with a friend and was a complete surprise at the party. My mom's oldest sister, Aunt Barbara, and her husband flew in to Indiana to "visit" thier oldest daughter and her husbad at Notre Dame in South Bend, and just coincidentally decdied to drive up to Fox Lake to do an early birthday lunch with mom. We gave my cousin-in-law John a tour of the area and decided we had to show him the clubhouse where the grandparetns had parties. When we walked in my mom was totally surprised to see family and friends from near and far to celebrate her birthday! It was a great time - good food, good company, and an all around relaxing weekend after the stress of getting it planned.

Another little story about my mom. You probably don't know it, but my mom was actually born in a little town called Princeton Junction, in a little state called New Jersey. When she was in Junior High the family moved to Massachusetts, and a few years later they moved out to the MIdwest. You can immagine the irony when she later met and married a man whose last name was Jersey. Yes, that corniest of all corny jokes came out at the wedding a number of times - meet the NEW Jersey!

My mom is a great woman - but she works too hard. As I write she is at work and I haven't gotten to wish her a Happy Birthday. She started her day at 5AM and at 9:30 PM she still hasn't gotten home. She has been gone from the house longer than my dad, who took the train to Chicago, put in a full day of work, and took the train back an hour and a half back to the 'burbs. And we wonder where I got my work ethic? Happy Birthday mom - I hope you get sleep and relax and do all the fun things that a birthday entails tomorrow!!!

Superhero Matthew and his Sidekick Matthew Baby Bunny Rabbit to the Rescue

It has been a while since I've had a birthday to blog about. Happy Birthday Matthew, aka Matthew Baby Bunny Rabbit. On Friday 23 November we celebrated the anniversary of the arrival of the baby in the blue blanket. Matt is my "baby" brother, and the only boy. Can you really call him your baby brother if he is officially 24 years old? I think he'll always be my little brother to me. I am one of a select group of people who call him Matthew. He is Matt to the rest of the world, but I just love his full name. Matthew still lives in our hometown. So here are a few of my favorite Matthew stories.

Now, you ask me, what is up with the Matthew Baby Bunny Rabbit commentary? Being an ideal older sister I was known to say things like "matt is a baby" or "matt the brat". If you don't keep the baby aware of his status you aren't filling your natural born role, right? Well, as little girls and boys we all have our favorite doll or stuffed animal. I remember several of mine - my Holly Hobby doll and my "Dolly dolly". Matthew had a stuffed rabbit when he was about 4 years old. Obviously this rabbit needed a name. Matthew decided to be a good daddy and name his child after himeself, and Matthew Baby Bunny Rabbit was born. That name still brings a smile to my face. He still has it somewhere, and MBBR is a sacred item – an artifact that will live on as a legend!

Another of Matthew’s nicknames is CHeese Ball. I don't actually remember this, however, everyone in my family knows the story. We were out staying with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle John and their kids after my Grandma Martha (or perhaps it was Nanny) died. All of us "older" kids were upstairs playing together and doing whatever it was that we did. Once again, Matthew was about 4 years old. Matthew was downstairs with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Uncle John was lying on the couch, and there was a can of planters cheese balls (remember them) on the other side of the room. Uncle John asked Matthew for a cheese ball, thinking he would bring the can, or at least a handful. Matthew brought him a single solitary cheese ball. THis was hilarious, and typical of a child that age. Needless to say, the rest of the night Uncle John would bark out "CHEESE BALL" and Matthew would run over and give him one solitary cheese ball, giggling and grinning the whole time. For years to come Matthew would get a canister of Cheese Balls for Christmas – a special gift from Uncle John to him.

Happy Thanksgiving

Katie Grace came to town for turkey lurkey day. we had a good ole southern time. I was excited to get to share my first Thanksgiving in the house with someone. I was cookin it up hot in the kitchen. We did a good job of baking enough carbohydrates for a small starving nation in Africa. I roasted a turkey breast, as well as cooking green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn bread, and scalloped potatoes. I also made a pumpkin pie. I used my great grandmother's pie crust recipe for the first time. There was definitely something special about using a family recipe for the pie crust. I think that Kate can attest to it - the food turned out delicious!

Kate’s stay was fairly uneventful, relatively speaking. She got to meet her new niece as well as play with the "old" one. We have taken to talking about them as the old one and the young one or the big one and the small one. That way they don't know that we are talking about them. I can officially say I am a mother now. Last week I caught myself telling them to stop roughhousing and to go play outside if they were going to play like that. When did I turn into my mother? Next thing you know I'll be telling them not to bother me if they aren't bleeding profusely. We know I'll never have to tell my girls to clean their plates - they are experts at that.

My friend Jano did an absolutely Fabulous Thanksgiving blog in which she summarized some of the many things she is thankful for. Following in her lead, her is a late, but no less important list of some of the many things for which I am thankful for – in no particular order:
I am thankful for two silly yet cute dogs, all adorable animals, the people I love – both friends and family, the unconditional love of God, children, and dogs, a wonderfully fulfilling (most days) job, the feeling of heartfelt laughter in the belly, the twinkle in the eye from a true smile, snow days, fires in the fire place warming my toes, getting lost in a good book, an education that is second to none, cute shoes, the big ten network, an outstanding basketball program, music in my head and in my heart, the start of the Christmas season despite the over commercialism, St Jude – the patron saint of lost causes, a nap on the couch, the joy of cooking, the oppertunity to help others, and life in general. Hopefully you are thankful for as much as I’m thankful for, if not more!

O h- i NO!!

Loyal Readers - I appologize for the lack of blogs lately. Life is boring and I'm busy, so nothing is getting blogged. Actually I think my big excuse is that I spend all day on the computer at work, so by the time I get home I don't wnat to see the computer unless anbsolutley necessary (which means I'm working at home too).

Things of note:
Illinois beats over rated Ohio State. Calling them over rated does diminsh our win, but they were over rated. i particularly enjoy the picture i was sent of the osu band after the game. It took me a minute, but it was cute! I am enjoying the bowl game predictions that have us going to the Capitol One bowl in Orlando vs. Florida. Zook vs. his old recruits. That has commercialism written all over it!

Daisy Dog was feeling lonely. Since I couldn't get a daddy for her, I decided to get her a sibling. We welcomed Madison into our home this weekend. Madison is a 9 month old plott hound mix rescue. Her story is great. One of the women I know through work/the local rescue society rescued a dog who was about to be euthanized in Fla. She was skin and bones. Three weeks later she gave birth to a litter of 11 puppies. Madison is one of those puppies. She is golden yellow with a light brindle pattern. She and Daisy are doing great together. They run and play and run and play all day long. This picture From Saturday night shows just how tired they were. I had two VERY tired pups!

Happy 2 year anniversary to Amanda. She has been working with me for 2 years now. It is mazing how time flies. not when you are having fun, it just flies in generall

Not too much else to report here. I just work, work, and work a lot more.
If anyone wants to go to the capital one bowl, or whatever other bowl.... let me know. My life is boring and I need a little something somethign to involves fun in my life!!

OCC

Another learning lesson:

Orange County Chopper (the "reality" show with pimped out bikes) is NOT based in Orange County, CA. It is based in Orange County, NY. If I had ever watched the show, I would probably know that. However, Newburg, NY, which is where I'm working this week, is in Orange County, NY. Can you guess where I'm going?

We were going back to work after lunch yesterday, when this chopper pulls up to the gate next to us. It was so awesome. It was the totally pimped out army recruiting chopper. Check it out!!!! Can you imagine it being your job to ride it around the country and show it off?

The Empire State Welcomes You

Hi all,
I'm in the Empire State, in Fishkill. A short history lesson. According to my internet sources, the Empire state refers to New York's vast wealthy and variety of resources. More importnatly, Fishkill is actually a Dutch name. It refers to a the river that runs through town. Kill is actually dutch for creak or stream. Thus, the fish river, which drains into the Hudson River, is the meaning of the town name. It does NOT refer to killing fish. Apparently PETA tried to fight to get the name changed several years ago for that reason. Typical.

Fishkill is a nicer, cleaner seeming, slighly more urbanized version of Fox Lake. The internet tells me that you can take the train to Grand Central Station and it takes abotut 75-85 minuts. That pretty much jives with dad's commute.

The scenery is beautiful. This is the perfect time to be here. The leaves are changing. And, there are TONS of tree lined hiis along the river. HOpefully I'll get some good pictures. It is nothing like November in MS. In fact, it is down right COLD. Thank Goodness for Winter coats, ski hats, and mittens. Ask me how I really feel about it tomorrow after a day in the field.

Who ever said common sense was common?

Ok, lets admit it. I'm a smart girl. However, I'm not a SMART girl. For weeks I've known that fall back was coming up. It proceeded o completely skip my mind. Yes, I was one of those people. I got up this morning and dragged myself out of bed this morning, thinking "If only I can get a little more sleep before church". About the time I got into town I said to myself "Gee, it is funny that no one is at any of the million other churches I've passed - oh wait, it is fall back weekend" So, after rushing to get out andmake it to church in time, I realized I had set msyelf up to go to the imaginary 7:30 AM mass. Instead, I went to the Evil Empire otherwise known as Wal-mart and I did a little shopping. I picked up a few magazines to read on the plane in case my work doesn't do it for me. Oops.

Really, my oops worked out well. I stopped in at work and cleaned up and did the final prep for my trip this week. Now I'm about to be on my way home, where I have all afternoon to do launry, clean house, mow the lawn, and pack. Plus, play with the Daisy Dogg.

Way to go to the Illini, the Gophers, and the BTN for keeping me entertained last night. I always enjoy a good U of I win. Hopefully we can keep it up and route The Ohio State University (TOSU) Buckeyes next week!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween all!!! We celebrated our first Halloween in the new house. There are decorations on outside and a Sign on the door that says "the witch is in - treats inside". Daisy Dog dressed up as a little piglet. It was quite apropos considering how she snorts like a pig.

half of the neighborhood kids thought she was adorable, and were scared of her bark. She did a REALLY good job. Ms. Maureen gave her a yummy bone last night, so she gnawed on it most of the night, as well as informing me of when kids were at the door. She didn't run away and she was just all arou good. NOw she is absolutely exhausted, and passed out on the floor from all of the excitement.

We had well over a hundred trick or treaters - I quit counting around 70 at 7:15ish. They came in droves with parents towing trailers up and down the road with bales of hay and kids in costumes. Some of the kids were adoreable. Lots of princesses and spidermen and pirates. I must have given out almost $50 in candy!

I also got ding dong ditched twice tonight! The catch is - I knew exactly who it was! The Preston and Travis from up the street were ding dong ditching their parents the other night. Daisy and I walked up on them when they were running from Prestons dad - who was in full army camo chasing them down! So, I knew it was them this evening. Still, they were good - and they are cute kids.

All in all, a positive first haloween in the house!

Best Saturday Ever

This is the way days were meant to be! It is so the best Saturday in a while.

It sounds lame, but my weekend has been mostly great. I got up this mroning and watched my boys in orange and blue beat down on ball state. today was our homecomming, although i did not come home. but, we played ball state at home, and we won! great job to rashard, juice, vonte, jay, and all ofour boys. i love having the big ten network -- how else would i get to watch these things? the bad thing: the announcers on the BTN need to get with the program. they are with the BTN, they should know a little bit about the schools in the big ten. all i'm asking is that they not spend the entire first quarter calling illinois the orange and white, and don't call our mens basketball coach bill webber. seriously peeps, get with it.

then, i decided to start stripping wallpaper this afternoon in celebratin of the game. i was going to work ont he bathroom next, but decided that i didn't want to be working on painting it when kate is here at thanksgiving. i knew that the bathroom wallpaper was really tight - it would be scraped off in centimeter sized pieces. so, i decided to start working on the hall. i expected it to be much of the same. well, apparently i got luckly! i was pulling down entire sheets of wallpaper without much damage to the drywall. I have a couple of spots that will require a bit of repair, but otherwise, all apears to be well. Instead of taking two weeks to get rid of the wallpaper it took about two hours. there is a little more cleanup required, but we could totally have this painted up ahead of schedule! Fab!!

The only bad thing to happen today, during out walk Daisy Dogg got attacked by one of our neighbros dogs. This was another hard attack. We were on the street, on the other side of the street from their house, and this dog came out and barked and there was definite teeth on her booty. THis dog is a member of the County's K9 unit, so I can't just get him thrown out. We are going to need to figure out where we can walk - because the lake is not working for us.

Time to watch Penn State and Ohio State in Happy Valley.

lunch time buddies

I lunched with my friend Angeal and some of her friends who I know by association. They are all really nice people. Most importantly, we got to play with Sasha, the shitzu during lunch. Sash is a 6 week old puppy who is as cute as can be. I could take her home and just love on her all day long. She can't weigh more than 5 pounds. Terry-Ann (who is married to Terry - that isn't confusing!!) has been bringing her into work becuase she is in the puppy stage where she needs to go out often and she needs to eat often because her little stomach just can't take it all in.

If I could play with a puppy every day at lunch, my life owuld be super fabulous!!

it's getting cold in here

Sort of the opposite of getting hot in here. let's put on all our clothes. We are enjoying a VERY cold week. Temps have been between highs of 55 during the day and lows of 45 at night. very very chilly! Not the weather we expect here in MS. This cold front is nice, but i need to get the fire going. i have a feeling we might need to fire it up this weekend!


In fact, it has been incredibly HARD to get up and get out of bed in the morning. Daisy Dogg has been totally smart and lucky dog! In the mornings she has been hanging out on the bed. She doesn't get up and go out until long after I get up and started. She sits on the bed in her warm spot until I have gotten out of the shower and am ready to get the day started. Even now, she is sitting next to me on the couch. She is REALLY good at keeping my feet warm.

Also, if you aren't on the up and up, my FAVORITE show is Ugly Betty. I hate to say it, but I honestly feel little too close to her. She is quite the clueless character. If I only watch one hour of TV all week, I hope this is the hour. It was nice to see Hilda being a real mother and aware of her son. I was happy to see Alexis get her memory back and realize how horible her dad was and how they were just as screwed up and dysfuctional as the rest of us. Even better yet, it ws great to see Marc go on a date with a normal guy. My new favorite phrase - instead of calling a hottie 'eye candy' i will now call them 'guy candy'. Most imporntatly, it was adorable to see Henry tryto rescue Betty when her jerky date took off on her. i mean seroiusly yellowhead, give the girl a break. Was your bachelorocity profile really ALL that great either? She is nervous. She just wants to impress you. She is a sweetie if you jsut get to know her. (se where the similarities come in?).

For all 2 readers out there: what is your one hour (or half hour) that really just makes your week? feel free to share and post. it will make me feel special!

BLOGGER"S NOTE: I was thinking about this today. I dont' want to admit it, but i have enough experience iwth selecting screen names and signins for e-mails, webstites etc, so I am in the know on this one. Betty went into this long draw out diatribe on why she was unable to pick IloveBunnies as her screen name because it was taken. I can agree to that one. However, IloveBunnies is taken but CutieInQueens wasn't? Yeah right.

Frogs and Dogs

Ok, Nikki has given me a new theme song. Apparently, despite being amazingly hot, skinny, a natural blonde, and dating Tony Romo, Carrie Underwood knows my life quite well. The chorus goes something like this:

"I close my eyes and
I kiss that frog.
Each time finding
the more boys I meet
the more I love my dog."

WHo knew Carrie and I had so much in commong. A huge THANK YOU shout out to Nikki for finding that one for me!

In other news, It is 5:45 and I'm still at work. Sadly, I will still be at work for a while longer. After spending my day in a meeting, I'm feeling behind. So, in the light of the old, work-a-holic Sarah, I will be staying here to get a little something accomplished before leaving. On that note, breaktime is OVER.

Happy 1st Birthday Virginia

This post is a little late, but better never than late. This Saturday was Virginia's 1st Birthday Pary! She actually turned 1 year old last Thursday, but I'm a little slow lately. Virginia is the daughter of my friends Amanda and Stephen. They live over in Delhi, and she is precious. You may recall her from earlier this month where I babysat on a Friday night. She is one of the best behaved babies I know. Either Amanda is in trouble with her later, or else her older sister is giong to be a handfull later in life. Or, Amanda i just REALLY lucky. If you would like to see some pictures from case desicration, check out the link to Amand and Stephen Young! It was Cute cute cute!

Friday night was happy hour. Mad Props go out to Tom Borrowman for showing his chops. Actually, Tom is always game to go out, the real props go out to me for hanging far longer than normal, and for actually showing as opposed to the rest of the possee!

Other good news: while it is raining like crazy, Daisy dogg can't get her walk. Lately, this has been keeping her down Today, it eally has her down. She has gotten her puppy back and is wanting to play play play. She is even playing with toys around the house!!! Yay!!!

Yoga-licious!

i've always wanted to try real yoga or real pillates. i think i would enjoy them. i love walking. i love running, i just can't do it. i think that yoga and pilates would give me a lot of additional benefits. the problem is that i'm too cheap to spend the money to join the Y here in town. the free classes at the gym at work are at the most inconvenient times, i.e. lunch. the other places that offer them are way expensive, or filled with size zero ole miss girls who make me feel out of place since i'm not a 7th generation vicksburg resident. yesterday i went to yoga at the pee wee workout world for the first time. gail, who is my work neighbor and my home neighbor now, has been trying to get me to go with her for a while. i finally remembered my stuff, so i went. i'm in LOVE. it was fun! i felt great. i'm totally going to start going more regularly. hopefully every M and W that I'm in town! today i'm a little sore. or a lot sore. i really wish that sven, my hot, swedish, imaginary personal masseuse was actually real. i could definitely use him today.

in other news on the homefront, we went to see dr. brogdon at the animal medical clinic again this morning. she is very happy with daisy dogg's progress, but we are not totally uninfected. so, 2 more weeks of drugs. the bad news: 2 more weeks of waking up in the middle of the night to let the poor drugged up dog out to use her personal princess pad.

it looks like i'll be traveling for work at the beginning of november. i'll be going to the northern NYC burb's. this is a new place for me, although it is a state i've hit before. should be a fun and interesting little trip. i need to get new batteries for the camera before heading that direction!

may the luck be with me

wish me luck.
tonight is my first yoga class! we'll see how sore i am tomorrow :c)

Today's Theme Song

Ok, La Ti Da is now my personal theme song. http://www.theicicles.com/pages/listen.html
It is amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you!!


Things are lookin alright today
The sun is shining I'm feeling okay
My chin is up , my spirit is high
Pretty sure that I could fly

So I sing la ti da ti da

Things are finally right for me
The sun is shining, I'm feeling free
My heart is whole and I can finally breath
The horizon I can finally see

Things are finally going swell
The sun is shining, I'm feeling well
My mind is totally clear
I can feel the happy coming back to me

Things are looking brighter and I'm feeling better

la ti da

i LOVE the target comercials with the song that goes la ti da. it is sung by the icicles. google taught me that one. i LOVE the song. it makes me want to party!

the house is looking hot. the closets are white instead of the icky yellowed almond originally painted in 1979. now it is just a mattter of slowly replacing the clothes in them and hanging a million things on the wall.

i'm also amused by this new show "samantha who?". it is cute. christina applegate and barry watson from seventh heaven are on it. i like the concept of waking up ahd having to figure out who you are. it seems cute.

finis

last night. trim finished.
tonight. moving in.
yay.
'nuff said.

there is still tons of work to do, but my bed calls my name. i will post pics once the room is put back together.

The dukes of vicksburg

when i woke up this morning, i had no idea that today would wind up quitethe way it did. i figured it would be like an other columbus d. Nothing big to report. i was wrong.
this morning i worked around the house, big surprise there. i got the first coat of paint onto the trim and the vanity. it looks nice. it needs one more coat, but it is starting to look good. then, i went over to jackson. all was well, i went to the new mall, which isthe nice part of town. it was a little rainy, but all was loking good. I droped a bunch of money at the petsmart buying dog food a new dog bd and toys (how spoiled is she). The good news,I shouldn't have to go buy food until t-giving if not christmas. i wnt to the car, and it woulnd' turn on. arg. what the hey. so, i thought i needed a jump. i walked over to target, did my target shopping and got a set of jumper cables. a nice guy helped me out, and we jmped my car. it started up and all seemed well. i'm a dumb girl when it comes to my car, but i know to keep it running for 15-20 minutes. so, i went over to hobby loby (my last stop) and sat in the parking lot with the car running. it just stopped 5 minutes after being jumped. so, i went into hobby lobby to find out where the nearest auto zone was and to get scurity to jump me again. well, this strip mall had no security. but, a nice woman heped me out. we jumped it and i was about to head out. i put the car in gar and it just DIED. so, we tried again. disaster ensued. it wouln't start up. it kept making this bad noise, and not the type of noise i associated with trying to turn over. so, i wound up haning out at the strip mall for a whlie longer while my friend kirk came to pick me up. he and his roomate brought a trailer and we brought my car back to vicksburg. right now it is sitting at the shop. it may just be the battery, but i want to get it checked out since it went from having no problems to being unable to take a charge.

the best part of the story
we had to jump it to get it on the trailer. then, when we got back to vicksburg, it was dead again. so, we had to uhook the truck from the trailer and re-jump it. note that the car is about 12 inches smaller than the trailer, so kirk had to do the dukes of hazard thing to get in and out of the car. we jumped the car. then they started to re-hook up the trailer so we could get the car off. as soon as the trailer got hooked up the car died AGAIN!!! so, we were going to have to unhook the trailer, pull the truck around and d it again. we wound up "engineering" it and hooking my jumpers and their jumpers and getting the car started. what a disaster!!!! i feel like only me.....
OK, hopefully that gave y'all your laugh for the day.

Tuesday's Update: My car is fixed. It was just the battery. We so could have just gone and bought a new battery and not gone through all of the trailer issues. But seriously folks, that MADE the story.

the corn and the cheese part 2

this weekend was a double battle of the corn and the cheese.

bears 27 the pack 20

'nuff said

The Corn and The Cheese

Hi ho the Dairy Oh, The Corn and the Cheese. Corn 31, Cheese 26. And, I watched it from the comfort of my own home. Granted, i would have LOVED to ahve been at memorial stadium on Saturday, but if I couldn't be there, at least I could watch it. It is great to see the Illini finally getting a chance. They aren't just winning, but they are beating teams who are in Division 1!!! I must say, I do enjoy listening to the announcers. They drive me crazy. They talk about these players and how they are so great but no one has heard of them until today. They imply that these guys sucked for the last several years. For instance, Rashard Mendenhall is the running back no one has heard of - hello, in Champaing we are VERY familiar with his name. This isn't something new. Same with J. Lehman. You are just finally giving us a speck of attention. Ron Zook, you did us proud. Thanks for all the hard work to you and your boys.

I will admit, I look forward to stoppin by the office of the one Badger fan I work with an needling him a little. I wouldn't be doing it, except when I saw him Thursday he decided to give me a hard time :-)

I also need to add this one to the pot. this is the Second time this type of thing has happened. During undergrad we were a part of the 0-11 years. The year after I left we went to the Sugar Bowl. Likewise, it is looking like a repeat. Last year was full of losses and we are practically bowl bound already!!! Also, congrats to them on joining the AP top 25. Once again, first time back in there 2001. So, I think what this says is that if I start spending every other year as a student of the U of I, they will have really good seasons every other year!!

In other football news, I watched the LSU game Saturday night. It was absolutely AMAZING. If you didn't see it and you are like me and don't watch Sportscenter, you need to read about it. The last quarter was so great. Talk about a fatal combination of talent and luck. Les Miles made 5 or 6 huge gambles, and every single one paid off. It was the type of game that made it worth your while to watch. I can't immagine being a tiger or gator fan and watching it though. i would have made myself sick!

The rest of my saturday night was spent giving Daisy a bath to try to de-blue her butt. Some girls stay in and wash their hair on Saturday nights. Me, i stay in and wash my dog's hair. What that says about me, I'm not sure. For one thing it definitely says I'm lame. But, i'm OK with thtat. Note taht the blue got out. Then she got some white on her whiskers yesterday. We just can't win!!! :c)

Attack of the Blue Butt

It's been a while since i've posted, so i thought i should put out a little update. Things are crazy here, as usual. I honestly could not tell you what keeps me busy, but something does.

I've been continuing work on the house, as always. My latest project continues to be my bedroom. Saturday afternoon was spent painting my ceiling. It is amazing how gross and not white the ceiling gets over several years time! In fact, gross is a good word for it. Just refereshing the ceiling alone was a great step. Sunday night I moved on to working on the actual walls. Since then i've been trying to do a wall a night. it has kept me busy. it is amazing how long it takes to get each wall properly taped and then painted. or, perhaps i am just my father's child and i'm anal and want it done right, so it takes forever. last night i finished getting the first coat on the last wall in the bedroom. meanwhile the vanity area has two coats on it already! This weekend we'll finish getting the paint on, thank goodness! I'm tired of sleeping in the living room. I miss my bed. Actually, i tried sleeping in the spare room one night. i quit after that. it was HORRIBLE. i don't know where my parents got the matressses for kate's bed, but i pity the fool who gets stuck sleeping on them!

Speaking of painting, we had an incident the other night. Daisy Dogg had done a GREAT job. She was just keeping out of the paint, just sitting in the closet watching what was going on. Well, the other night she decided to be a little more proactive and help her mama out. She decided the best way to help was to use her butt and her little tail to spread paint. She backed herself up on the wall and got a blue butt! I tried to take a picture, but she stay still long enough for me to take a picture from behind. I guess she is enough of a lady to know that the camera adds ten pounds, and she didn't want phots of her butt circulating the internet!

I'll say it again. Thank you Big Ten Network! I got to watch the IL-Penn State game while i painted Saturday. Go Illini! Keep up the good work!

smackdown @ sandy's

yesterday was absolutely crazy. i spent much of my day in meetings and just getting small stuff done and figured out. it was one of those days where i felt like i got nothing done. but, yesterday d^2 spent the whole day outside. she didn't seem to mind, but she didn't seem to have particularly enjoyed it. it is funny - she won't come inside and just wants to spend all of her time outside while haley's puppy wrigley won't go outside unless haley and matt go outside and play with her. thank goodness i don't have that problem with d^2.

last night i went downtown for the orientation session for obedience lessons for D^2. i accidentally wen tto hte wrong spot, so i didn't get oriented and will have to wait 6 months for the next set of sessions. i am so dumb. for some reason i swear i thought she said it would be next to the city auditorium not the city pool. i didn't even know we had a city pool,


last night was also monday night football at sandy's place. she has the best place to have a party ever. she has like 20 ft ceilings in this awesome loft apartment downtown. she projects the tv onto the wall and it is just a big ole party party. i really didn't care about the score, it was just fun to go out and be sociable. of course, those in the fantasy football league cared a lot more! but, we had some yummy homeade salsa and guac! made me happy!

the m team

i'll say it again, i love directv. while my freinds and family who live in themidwest are all unable to watch illinois games, i am someow a recipient of the big ten network! this week i got to watch the illini give indiana a L. so, we are now 3-1! it is quite fun to acually get to watch the illini.

this morning daisy had a date with the m-team. christina and liz came over and with the dogs, so daisy, molson, mocha, and molly l got to play in the back yard while the mamma hung out and caught up. it was quite fun to watch them play. they are all about the same size so play time is quite fun! it is especially fun for daisy and mocha since they are almost the same age.

i've now finished removing the wallpaper from my bedrom. the walls are washed, so the painting should start next weeend. yay!!! I'm ready for it to start looking hot! i think that this small change will make such a big diffece that i will be incredibly HAPPY.

earlier this week i caught some girls next door. it was hef and holly' 5th anniversary. holl kept talkng about how what she and hef have is special, and she understands that he needds to have lots of girlfriends. they celebrated with a party with all of his other girlfriends. then at the end kendra talked about how supposedly you are supposed to give wood for the 5th anniversary and how "bet you holly got some wood". how can you not LOVE this show?

Fetch Fido Fetch

first, congratualtions to alicia and krishan on the arrival of the beautiful, blond haired blue eyed boy. at 6 lb 14 oz, 19 in. long, he arrived last tuesay. we look forward to ltos of pictures and updates!

it's been a while, so i thought i should update the blog. i've been pretty busy, but i can't say lots has been happening.

the biggest news on the homestead is that daisy got her aniversary present. we are now the owners of a large fened in back yard. it is quite beautiful if i may say so. i called and got some quotes- all were pretty reasonable, so i decided to just go for it. i knew what i wanted, so i went for it. they weren't going to start until next monday, but then they realized that they could pound it out over the wekend. that worked well for me, so we have a fence. daisy dogg is the happies little puppy. she doesn't want to come inside!!! she would be quite happy to stay outside all day long. of course, she still does the doorbel thing and lets me know whenever anything is withn 100 ft of the house. she is definitely a tired puppy when we come in at night. crazy daisy in the yard, lazy daisy in the house. this morning we played catch. she enjoys having a long ways to run for the ball instead of the 10 ft. normally found in the house (which also has breakables...).

in other yard related news, i'm having major fire ant problems. i've killed several mounds out front, and i found one out back too. i am going to do a topical treatment to the whole yard, because this is out of hand! it is not a good idea to mow the lawn with a bunch of fire ants running around. hence, a good excuse to not mow for the time being.

friday night i went over to amanda's for a girls night in with her and virginia (aka va). amanda's husband stephen is in a quartet at their church, and the quartet was competiting at the national quartet competition. in kentucky so,we had a fun girls night in. we hung, and i introduced amanda to my flavor of the week - the pear vodka and cranberry cape cod. we had fun just hanging out and gossiping lie girls. daisy maisy came with me and spent most of her time running around with allie dog and playing scared of the cats. it is cute to watch her with the cats - she tries to play with hem, and they are scared of her, so they hiss and growl. then she gets frustrated and gets down on the ground further and barks. it is great, except when you are trying to keep baby sleeping. saturday morning we had a lazy morning of letting the dogs play and i got to play with va since she was up. she is such a cute, happy baby! she is 10 months old, and happy to to play and play and play. apparently i was granted baby approval since she didn't cry at first sight of me and she used me as a jungle gym. not everyone gets this treatment!

unfortnately, after the hurricane last week, never got satellite back up! something is definitely wrong. so, the directv guy is supposed to come out here and fix it for me this morning, between 8 and 12. i love the 4 hour time windows... hopefully he'll come out here sooner rather than later. I'm not feeling like working particularly late, so this means taking leave. meanwhile i am going to go work on my patio furntiture some more. i was getting somewhere with it last night, and then the mosquitos came out. they had a wonderful dinner: me! note to self: next time at walmart buy lots more citronella! if i'm going to take a morning off, why not use it to my advantage? soon we will have a little paradise out back!!

quote of the day...

last night while watching the girls next door, the quote of the day was:
"thank God I was wearing underwear today"
oh to be a hot blond playboy model

'berto

it has been a hot, dry summer here in MS. immagine my surprise that the weather was really cool the last two days. in case you aren't aware, a little hurricane named humberto got himself started and came to visit the states today well, he wa a fast guy because we got a TON of rain courtesy of him. i figure it is his fault when my lawn turns to the amazon. it is also his fault DD didn't get to walk today. but i'm not complaining because of him i am enoying a nice, quiet rainy evening with DD (tv is out).

also, the fence man starts tomorrow, weather prmitting. so, it is possible that i will have a fence by the end of the weekend. how cool is that!!! now i just need to put together that patio furniture and i can throw a party-party!

our hearts will always be in a little cottage by the sea

another importnat birthdy - today is my auntie barbara's birthday. she is my mom' oldest sister and she is also my favorite aunt. we are both oldest children, so we have a lot in common. my auntie barbara is a role model for me - she has been able to raise a great family, further her education, work, and maintin her faith. if ican be anything like her a few years downt he road, i'll be quite the happy camper. aunt barbara also has the pleasure of being married to my favorite uncle, who is conicidentally my godfather and ä founding member of the e-team. my favorite thing about my auntie barbara is that she goes to the jersey shore every summer. she spends a week (or two) relaxing on the beach before the new school year starts (shes a school nurse). if that isn't a smart idea, i don't know what is. her hear will always be in a cottage by the sea, and hope that one day she is able to buy that cottage. aunt barabara also just beacame a grandma fro the first time this summer. she has been looking forward to this for years, so i am uber happy for. now she has a new baby to make quits for and to spoil as her nana can. Happy Birthday Auntie Barbara

you look like a monkey and sometimes you smell like one too

i would be speaking of my dog here. today is daisy dogg's birthday. we've been together for a year now! if you aren't aware of this, daisy dogg is my spoiled puppy. unfortunately, she knows that she has me wrapped around her little paw. she is the protector of our house an my second doorbell. daisy has tailgated with me at illini football and she is my walking companion du jour. she is good at keeping me on my toes. she loves to alk around with squeaker toys. nothing makes her happier than reminding us that she is in the room. she also enjoys running in circles, sniffing butts, and body slaming. if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, you oughta.

Big Time Thanks

God bless the Big Ten Network. i didn't think got it. apparently i do. thank you directv

Thursday Next, a Firs Among Sequels

no: 6

title: thursday next, a first among sequels

author: jasper fforde

Ok this book is a pure 5 stars. it is the 4th book by jasper fforde in the thursday next series. this is probably my favorite series in modern lit. it details the life of thursday next, a character in an alternate earth. she is a brit, living a modern life. only in this alternate version of our earth - people travel cross country via air ships and take gravitubes cross country. trains and planes are things that just nver took off. there is also an enormous tax on cheese in this world. it is just an absurd almost brittain that isn't quite like the brittain of today. the books are fille with references to literature. thursday is actually able to jump into books, and is a member of the policing agency within fiction, jurisfiction. this bok takes place 13 years after her first novel in which she obtained her ability to jump into books. in this book she is fced with a number of tasks- incluing geting her son friday to join the chronoguard - the time traveling policing agency whose duty is to keep time straight. she also needs to save the book orld from being taken oer by tv due to falling reading rates. all in all it was a grat read. as always fforde has put togethr a clever and entertaining novel.

amanda young is my hero

yay for amanda. she came up and helped me fix the leaky faucet at lunch. buying her lunch was the least i could do to repay her. now i can focus on that nasty wallpaper...

i heart cooking!

i really do!
i don't actually want to eat but i love cooking. well, i enjoy eating (obviously), but i get tired of eating leftoevers. tonight i made chicken spaghetti. yum. that wll feed me dinner until i get tired of it. right now i'm roasting vegetables(red bell peppers, onions, garlic, and zucchini). i am going to process them with some reduced fat cream cheese. then, that cn get spread on some bread with a few tomato slices and that will be lunch for the rest of the week. i got that idea from alton brown. he is so cool. i also cooked on monday niht. i made mini quiche cups. they have spinach, canadian bacon, green bell peppers, onion, and cheese in them. they are just quiche muffins! i froze them and then i can just pop 2 muffins in the microwave and i've got dinner on the go.
i really heart cooking. if anyone wants to eat, please tell me - i much prefer cooking for others than for me.
http://altonbrown.com/

me and miss cleo

i slept really poorly last night. i kept waking up. at one time i swore that my spoiled little dog was playing with the trash. well, no trash in my bedroom this morning. but, when i went out this morning to let her out, the dogs across the street had knocked over my garbage can and strewn it all over the front yard. a little weird. actually, a lot weird.

happy home

today i got my first housewarming gift. lucy and elizabeth decidd to get me something. they were unsure of what to get since they haven't seen the house yet. so, they went with a very "unique" gift - a "matched pair" of candle holders/vases. they are glass, painted sort of silver. how generous of them. they don't reallyu go with my style, but it was sweet of them to do it. unfortunatley, one of them broke when the bag tipped over in my office. literally, fell 6 inches from vertical to horizontal, and broke. still, isn't it "nifty" how one direction up they are candle holders and the other direction up they are vases... notice my nice, normal, silver hurricanes in the background.

the home warranty people have called a new plumber. let's hope it will happen - after all, every time i use the hall shower it turns off less.

by the way, here is a picutre of the painted laundry room. i don't think i posted one yet. next step my room!!!

daisy dogg is doing pretty well. she has found her spot on the couch. you wouldn't even know that the the couch had been moved half way accross the country!!! of course, currently, she is barkign her head off to let me know about some threat... she is also going to town with her new duck. i think he has been killed. many times over.

sunday - not all sunny

well, yesterday ws uber productive. today, not so much. i started pulling down border. it is a little slow going - good thing it is just border to remove. of course, it would be less slow going if i actully did it. mid-day i had to take a break to go let my friend's dog out. they called me this moning to ask if i would mind coming by their house to let out the dog because they were out kayking and didn't want to leave him in the hosue for 12-14 hours. well, i did it because i'm nice - even though it is a 30 minute drive from my house up north to their house down south. of course i brought daisy and the two dogs ran around the yard and body slammed one another. it was fun for her. not so fun for sarah - no labor day cookouts for me - just hard work.

i'm still without my new lawn furniture :(

more importnatly, the bathroom/plumber crisis is getting worse. it started out with the fact that i noticed that the plumbing in the master bath was making weid noises - air bubbles appearing in the toilet when the shower was running. so, i called the home warranty compay and the plumber was supposed to come out. meanwhile i started using the hall bathroom instead. the plumber called back and was supposed to come out tuesday. they never did. on thursday afternoon i called the home warranty company after giving the plumbers time in case i wasn't paying great attention when we talked. the home warranty people left a message with them and the plumbers called me back. they said they hadt he wrong phone number for me and we agreed that they would call friday afternoon and we would do the house thing then. no, they never calledand they never showed up. meanwhile, the hall bathroom shower is starting to drip and it won't turn off all of the way, no matter how much i turn. ugh to home ownership ;-(.

in other, beter news - just removing the border in my bedroom makes it look better. i can't wait to see what it looks like with decent paint. i'm tempted to put in a new ceiling fan too - but that might be a bit much for right now. the big prioritiy is the fence. now that the back yard has furnitue an the sunroom is useable i want to be able to put daisy dukes out there and eat or read.

daisy dogg is lying on the couch next to me passed out - apparently half an hour of playing with a boy and a 1.5 mile walk will do it to you...

other good news - it rained. the plants are thanking the Lord.

house work home improvement - whats the diff?

well, it is an "exciting" labor day weekend in beautiful vicksurg, ms. thus far i have spent my saturday cleaning and at the home depot. doesn't sound very fun? it is exactly what i planned to do!!! i made a list of things to do an i've been rip roaring down it. i'm not allowed to do home improvements until after getting the house clean. i'm pretty much at home improvement stage. i'm working on cleaning/finishing unpacking my room. once stuff gets cleaned up in there i'll start attempting to pull down the beautiful border. my goal for the weekend: pull down border, wash walls, spackle walls, paint ceiling. it is a rather lofty goal, but i've got two more days to do it!

i did go into town this afternoon to home depot. i went with the intention of buying one thing - an extetion ladder. did i buy it? you bet ya not. but, i did buy some bigger pots to repot some plants for my sunroom. in the cleaning frenzy this afternoon i finally moved the boxes out of the sunroom into the garage. i put daisy's old, little cage out there. we are going to try giving her the sunroom to play in during the day. if she has cage, food, and water she ought to be pretty good. but, back to home depot and the sunroom. i had fallen in love with some furntiure for the sunroom at home depot,but being a tightwad i hadn't bought it yet. i was waiting for it to go down to 75% off. too late. it is still 50% off and it is gone. so, instead i bought a glider and a bar set for the sunroom/patio. it is on hold until see a man about a truck.. actually, i'm going to see a woman, but the difference i irelevant. i'll have to post a picture or two once things get looking nice!

they pee in my garage

my neighbor's dogs.. not the neighbors themselves. well, the black and tan dog appears to be getting used to daisy. i think he is actually a big fraidy cat who just barks a lot. when we go out he comes over to see what is up and to say hi. then, when she goes to sniff his butt and say hi, he gets scared and pees. i've seen it several times. i think he needs a puppy therapist to deal with his issues. you know daisy is scary enough to cause another dog to pee...

waste fraud and abuse

i work for the government. waste fraud and abuse are rampant. today i was a part of it. so far i've spent 45 minutes on the phone (most of it on hold) with tech support for gateway. i'm having a pc problem. our it guy told me to call tech support for the computer becuase i think a part needs to get swapped out. so, instead of the it guy calling in, an engineer is being charged to a project for an hour plus to sit on hold and get nothing done. you know that they are trying to streamline the it process and this is how it is being done.... one it guy for 150 people... obviously this does not encourage waste, fraud, or abuse. i'm about ready to just hang up for today.

word of the day: sausage wallet

i haven't posted much lately. now that i'm a working woman, i feel like i don't have nearly enough time in my day. i feel like i get up in the morning, go to work, come home, walk the dog, fix dinner, clean the kitchen and go to bed. thank goodness i took two weeks off to move in, otherwise i wouldn't be able to get my stuff unpackd...

today i was supposed to get a call from the plumber telling me he was at the house. the pipes in the master bath seem to be having problems. they are making bad noises and producing air bubbles. when the shower is running air bubbles appear in the toilet. likewsie for the sink. The good nes that goes with this is that i decided to shower in the hall bath. i don't know why i would ever not shower there. it i some GREAT water pressure! hopefully they wil call tomorrow.

right now i've got to admit my guilty pleasure: the girls next door. it is on rght now, and i love to hear these girls talk. they are so funny. their lifes are so unreal that i actually enjoy it. this episode involved the renaissance fair. we learned something new; the elizabethan word for ho is sausage-wallet!

daisy dogg had another incident htis morning. she was out in the front yard. the bad doggs were out. the black and tan one started plaing with her. he is still a bit of a puppy too, and all he des is bark. i think they became friends this morning. then his sister the tan dog ame over and bit daisy for no reason. then the little black and white one started running circles, barking, growling, and nipping. of course, daisy didn't want to walk into the house since she doesn't know what to do when the gang up on her. i ned to get up on this whole fence thing. the good news is that this evening when we got home from our walk they all came up as usual. the black and white one started being all bad ass again, and black and tan actually started barking and chasing him away. i think we are making progress

not to much else to report. i just need to get the kitchen clean so i can get some sleep. this weekend i need to us the extra day to get some work done around the house.

Murder at Union Station

Last weekend i finished another book

no. 5

title: murder at union station

author: margaret truman

this was a light-ish read. margaret truman is the daughter of former presdient harry s. truman. she is the author of a series of murder mysteries taking place in d.c. this one was like the 20th one. some of the books have been great, some have been not so great. this one was ok. i give it a 3 out of 5 stars. this one dealt with corruption in high dc offices as well as the everyday life of dc. it brings in a series of scenes that take place at union station (a cool place to visit). several of the characters are reappearing, and i've loved their books in the past, but they were not the main part of the storyline here, which made me sad. the ending picked up a bit fast and it left me wanting a little more explanation.

where's the beef?

so i wound up at happy our tonight with a few friends. tom, erin, jeff, jennifer and i hung out at the loft after work. somehow i sort of enjoy the loft. it is pretty nice, and itis not very uppity unless you want to be uppity. on the way home i drove by the wendy's. it did remind me... although i haven't actually been yet, it is nice to live in a land that has a wendy's.

i also was called miss jersey by a coworker this morning. he is new since i left for school. he seems like a nice guy - the type who would be ver respectful. but, i'm only like 5 days older than him - definitely not old enough to deserve ma''aming or the title miss. hoepfully it was liking my last name (it is loveable). the other acceptable alternative - he thinks i deserve respect because all he knows about me is that i just got back from phd'ing - so he thinks i must have much more age/experience and actually deserve some sort of respect. hate to break it to ya buddy - i'm not even 30 (yet).

yay!!!

i now have an oven!!! the man came out and fixed it this afernoon. i look forwd to actually being ale to cook!

double yay!!!

billy bob, dancing king on the tellureen

in the spirit of birthdays, i devote this post to my dad, bill. yesterday was his birthday ( i am behind on my blogging). he is starting to put on the years, as this was the big 5-5. obviously he is too young to have a daughter as old as me. my dad is a life long illinoisan. with the exception of a couple of years in college he has lived his entire life in the chicago suburbs. he actually grew up in oak park, just up the street from one of the frank lloyd wright homes.

i am very proud of my dad. for financial reasons he was unable to complete college. when i look at how far he has come in life and everything he has accomplished despite this setback, it amazes me. how far he has progressed in life has always been an example of what you can get if you are willing to work for it. now-a-days dad works for a bank in downtown chicago. i think it is chase manhattan, although i might be wrong. the way these banks are constantly buying one another out, i never really know who he works for. likewise, i never really know what he does. what i can tell you is that they ahve been filming the new batman movie accross the street from his offfice. as a result, he brought in a big blowup batman to put in their window. and people wonder how i turned out to be such a dork????

you ask, why is your dad a dancing king? he LOVES to dance. he is the best wedding date ever. he is out there dancing every dance that a middle aged man should be dancing (he avoids the hip hop for some reason). But, he is can get out there and swing with the divorcees or he can polka away the night with his daughters. In fact, in his slightly younger years i even remember seeing him go do the russian dance wehre you jump up in the air and do the splits.
despite being a hard worker, and a crazy dancer, my dad knows how to have fun. or, at least he knows how to be a smart-ass (once again, we wonder where i get that from?). one time we were eating dinner as a family. i must have been somewhere around 5th grade. my mom was lecturing one, or all, of us kids on table manners. as usual, someone had been playing with their food. about the same time that she finished her verbal whipping with the wet noodle dad decided to get some seconds. he took two slices of cucumbers. he then proceded to eat the middle, seeded parts and put the outsides over his eyes like a set of glasses. what a dork! how my mom didn't kill him that night, i'm not sure. :-)

on that note, i say happy belated birthday billy boy.

even rock stars get fat!

no. 3
title: size 14 isn't fat either
author: meg cabot

add another book to the list. i read this one this weekend. it was actually a re-read. i was looking for something lightweight and easy to read while procrastinating getting ready for the real world again. on a quality scale it was probably albout a 2 out of 5 since it is total chit lit fluff. however, on the chic lit scale it is a 4.5!

i need to state, i would not have bought this book. the title aloen would have made me ill. i'm tired of chic lit about "fat girls" that is unrealistic and provides unrealistic expectations for women today. the lives that these fat girls lead are absolutely unrealistic, and most of them aren't actaully fat. i like to escape into a good book to get away from reality, but these books are so far from my reality that i can't read them. plus, these books actually make me feel worse about myself (who thought i could actually feel worse...) however, my mom gave me a pile of books and the book before this was in the pile. i wound up reading it and really enjoying it.

the author, meg cabot, is actually the authoer of the princess diaries series for little girls (and adults like me). really, who doesn't like the concept of an average girl finding out she is actually a princess and having to change her lifestyle to fit in with what is expected. this book was about heather wells, a washed up pop princess. she is a fictitious tiffany or debbie gibson - the girl who played innocetn (pre brittney) bubble gum pop in the malls. then her mom stole her money and took off for south america, leaving her to fend for herself. fast forward to her late 20's, and heather has broken up with her justin timerlake-like boyfriend and is trying to lead a real life. she works as a residence hall assistant in a small new york city college. unfortunately she has a knack of getting herself into trouble, in the manner of dead bodies in the dorm. in this book the head cheerleader's head is found sitting in the ktchen one morning and heather works her way through the clues to find the killer. in the middle of all of htis her dad is released from prison and comes to live with her and her ex-fiancee is in the middle of marrying the up and commying dirty brittney spears-esque singer who broke him and heather up. of course, heather lives with her ex-fiancee's brother to make things a little spicier. i enjoyed this book immensely. if you like a cheesy mystery story with a small amount of chic lit thrown in, i highly reccomend it!

back in the saddle again

so i returned to the working world yesterday. it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. i essentially spent the entire day talking to co-workers. the early partof the the morning was filled with hello's and hugs - people do start to miss you when they haven't seen you in a year. everytime i finished talking to someone another person would come by and talk. then we had a two hour team meeting. it was a good way for me to hear what was going on so that i could get acclimated. by then it was lunch time - so a bountiful feast of barbeque was in order. in the afternoon i continued the catch-ups and i started unpacking.

my office is officially a disaster zone. how do i have so much stuff and where did it come from? i swear i cleaned it before leaving. i guess my stuff multiplied, and then the summer students left a bunch of stuff in the office when they returned to school. it is slowly getting back to normal. unfortunately (or fortunately) i already have work on my desk to do. that being said... time to get back to the grind. i guess it is good to be back. a week from now i will be behind and i immagine that two to three weeks from now i'll be traveling again.

lost and found

no. 2
title: Lost and found
author: carolyn parkhurst

this was another new novel for me. it ranked approximately 3.5 stars, maybe 4.

a short synopsis of the plot: the book focuses on the stars of a “reality” tv shown called lost and found. i don’t watch reality tv much, but the show is a sort of amazing race-ish show. the teams are made up pairs of people. the teams are competng for big money, and they are traveling around the world doing puzzles and doing “daring” stunts. the main characters are a mother (laura) and her 18 year old daughter (cassie). laura wanted to be on the show as an opportunity to try to regain the lost bond with cassie. cassie had a baby a few months back, and her mom never even noticed!!!! other teams include a set of middle-aged recently divorced brothers, a married couple who are both in “recovery” from alternative lifestyles, ex- high school sweethearts looking to re-try their relationship, and two former child stars. each person on the show has their reasons for being on the show. as the novel progresses the teams go through a series of ordeals from which we see the individuals grow.

i really liked this book. it spoke to me. it was well written, and the characters were interesting. plus, i liked the way it portrayed the dreaded reality tv. plus, it asks you, what do you think you are looking for - and when you findi t will you really be happy?

angry dog

actually, angry protective dog. when the doorbell goes off on the tv she jumps up and starts barking like mad to let me know the doorbell rang. not so useful if the doorbell is on tv :-)

paint me baby one more time

how trashy am i? here is some proof.

here is a close up of the awesome paint job done by the a's. it was taken after i taped for this paint job. as you can see, they were obviously down with the whole taping/painting carefully thing.

here are in progress photos:

now the walls have their first coat on (green in case you didn't notice). it looks hot. i need to do a second coat to the walls tomorrow morning. it is going to look great. then i get to do the cabinets and the trim. now that the walls are nice it makes the trim look dirty and nasty.

in terms of the cabinets, it is slow going. i got one of the doors off. i am the master of engineering to get it off. now i have to sand down the door and the cupboard because of all of the dried up old paint. i'm so doing this the right way instead of the quick way. it is a challenge, but a challenge i will have to overcome for the bathrooms eventually.

i also bought the goods to make a roman shade and to cover the shelves. next i need to get new hardware for the cabinets and to get the goods to re-wire the outlets. i'm going to try installing gfi outlets. since the laundry room is a "water" room it seems like a good idea. i found directions and it seems pretty easy. So, hopefully by the end of the weekend i will have one room done before going back to work.

meanwhile dog just dumped over her basekt of toys. she seems more interested in the basket than in the toys themselves.

trashy, of the white variety

yes, if you came into my house (almost wrote apartment there) right now, you might think i was white trash. my dryer is currently sitting in the middle of my kitchen. there is a reason for the trashy-ness. after talking about it for weeks, i'm finally painting. i'm starting with the laundry room - hence dryer in the kitchen. the laundry room is a good place to start because no one will see it unless i want them to, so i can test my painting skills. this is also a good place because the last time the previous owners painted they must have forgotten the paint tape. i think that it would have killed me to leave it be for months. plus, they had tons of "built ins". not just the built in cabinets, but several home made shelves. i decided the shelves needed to go, so they went out. it was sort of fun to get to start demolishing things.

so, i spent today washing walls (amazing how filthy they were - thank you God for amonia, vinegar, and baking soda: they do wonders) and removing shelving. then i got to pull out the spackle. this was always my favorite part when i was little. between the holes from the shelves and all of the other random nails and screws, there were a lot of holes to fill. i even did a whole patch in one spot! i'm proud of my work. i started taping too, so tomorrow morning i'll finish taping and get going wtih the paint thing.

the other big problem i'm having is with the bulit in cabinets. three of them have doors. the previous owners did things the quick and easy way - they just painted over the hinges. that is a big no=-no in my book. i wanted to replace the hinges when i repain the cabinets, so i'm attempting to get them off. it is proving to be bigger trouble than expected - i can't get the doors off by pulling out the pins, and most of the screws are painted in so tightly that i can't get them out. :-( if you have any suggestions, i'm all ears. somehow i will get this done.

meanwhile daisy is loving being in the house. last night we just walked up to the stop sign and came back home. then i put her on the tie out in the back while i fired up the grill and watered the lawn. she really likes the hose. when i sprayed water in her direction she started chasing it and having a ball! one day i'll put her under the sprinkler and see what happens.

tomorrow i'll post a mid-point picture of the laundry room. for now this "before" will have to do. from the picture you can see the excellent job that they did on the trip. you can also see some of the home-made shelves that are no longe a part of this room. considering how much spackle got put up today, i think that next time the room gets done i might need to re-drywall it!