best worst of the trip

the short version of Christmas review;

 

Best thing about Long Island; Family and friends and being part of the group

Worst thing about Long Island; public restrooms seem to all be smeared with poo and stink

 

Best thing I packed for the trip; Extra comfy pants for Lars since he worked the whole time there he only wore non pj pants 2 times

Worst thing I packed for the trip; my hairdryer.  Didn't even touch it and it is delicate and bulky so it takes carryon space

 

Best thing about getting home; the Christmas flowers had just bloomed so I didn't miss them

Worst thing about getting home; it did not magically clean itself

 

Best thing found upon arrival; gifts from Lars' mom and sister

Worst thing found upon arrival; the cats have shredded all the plastic I put on windows, even windows I didn't think they could reach

 

Post Christmas

Hi

 

I'm Back

 

I was in NY and had a great time for Christmas.  I did not write due to busy schedule and the fact that I mostly write for my parents and they were in the house with me.   Mom however checked my blog daily while I was there and once when I was in the room!   I realize that other people do read this and mom says she likes to see what I choose to write about even though she was there so here is my Christmas review, it will be long enough to make up for missing 5 days.

 

12/22 – where I left off – We did mini Christmas at our house and opened the things to each other and that other people had shipped to us.  Lars did awesome this year, he really knows what I like.  He got me a great watch, a couple books that took effort to choose just one to bring with me, and a few little things that were just really fun.  He liked what I got him too, mostly treats to eat like chocolate covered cherries and a funky cool mustard and a few other things he seemed to like.  My parents got me a ROOMBA and I had to leave it all alone because we were leaving in an hour but Mom also got one for Christmas so we got to play with hers and now I can't wait to get mine going.  Our flight was delayed about an hour because our crew was stuck in Denver but we got to NY just fine and all luggage made it too.  

 

12/23 – Visited with family and my good highshool friend and got some last min shopping done.  Got everything I brought wrapped and just had a mellow day

 

12/24 – more of the same plus church and a very long yoga class where I was complimented on the flexibility of my spine but I found out I've lost a lot of ab muscles so I should get back to pilates soon.

 

12/25 – Fun day long, non stop Christmas.  Went from parents to grandmothers back to parents house to set up for dinner to dinner to hanging out and finally to bed.

 

12/26 – Took me a while to figure out it was Tuesday already, somehow Christmas seemed like it should have been a Sunday.  

 

12/27 – more family and friends and hanging out.  We went to an all you can eat shshi place and it was very good sushi.  I ate so much I felt sick.  Lars and Konrad ate so much sushi I think they were glad to see us leave.   We finally played the game Lars has been looking forward to for a month and it was kinda dull and had a lot of directions but might be better the second time.

 

12/28 – got up early to see Dad before work and to see Heather since she had to leave early too.  Hung out and packed and relaxed some and ended the trip with a last visit to grandy's and then to the airport.  Very uneventful check in and flight and home to cats.   I checked our voice mail and found 2 messages from JAIL!  Apparently the jail phone system is collect only so our voice mail got an automated message about 'accepting charges' but it didn't say who was in jail.  We called the few local people we know well enough that may have tried calling us and they were all ok.  Just one call I would have said was a wrong number but there were 2 on two different days 2 days apart.  Hopefully I'm not letting someone down by not bailing the out of jail but I can't think of anyone who might be in there.  I called the jail and they said they have 175 people at the moment and could look up any name I wanted but they can't tell me who called because of the collect phone system.  Mystery end to the trip...

 

12/29 – In work, about 10 other people are here.  It is silent and by 9 am I had everything worth doing done so I read some blogs and now am writing this.  I think I'll go home for lunch and not come back but I'll keep my laptop up incase anything pops up.

 

So that was basically it  -  The holiday season is still going, New Years is next and then Cancun J

countdown

3 more hours of work

6 hours before we are at the airport

7 hours before we take off for HOME for Christmas

3 days until Christmas

 

In the 3 hours of work I have very little I have to do.... I have been a busy bee this week and finished my stuff early.  

 

In the 3 hours post work, pre airport I need to get Kitty litter and pack our carryons – hopefully I don't forget anything, packing last night was interspersed with folding laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning, chatting with Patti, and watching TV - I realized that I only packed one pair of pants about 11pm and shoved in 2 other pairs immediately before I forgot again.   We also must close up the house and give the cats a massive bowel of food.  I also cleaned out the freezer and fridge of anything that would be tragic should the fridge pick this week to die when we are gone.

 

I already checked us in for the flight and as of now Lars and I are not sitting together, hopefully someone will switch so we can watch movies but if not I'll just sleep.  

 

I may not post much over the next few days so MERRY CHIRSTMAS and hope everyone is having a good holiday season.

Shortest day of the year - lots to do

Happy winter solstice – shortest day of the year.  I don't know if it was light out when I went to work this morning or not because there is a fairly ominous set of clouds sitting over the state.  We are pretty lucky here north of the cities because south of the cities there is a major ice storm going on.  Some of that might get up here later today but I hope not because I drove the Saturn and it is not great in the ice.  I really hope the storm blows away before I need to be on an airplane tomorrow because nothing is worse then delays at an airport.

 

Last night we went to visit friends and do Christmas with them, the third person we were going to visit was actually at the first house already so he just joined in the party.  The second house is stricken with the flu so we will see them after we get back so we really only had one place to be so we had a nice dinner and a lovely cheese and fruit and meat course and we sat around and talked until 10:30.  By the time we got home I was just about asleep and I forgot all about Lars opening a gift because I took a shower and went to bed.  We will have to open something on Friday I guess, I think he forgot too so I don't feel bad.

 

Yesterday morning I went to a supplier and it was dull, a tour of a fairly out of date plant is hard to get excited about.  Seeing the place was good really, sets their place in my mind, but given I only have two days left to finish a bunch of stuff I could have thought of better things to do.  Today my goal is to complete my yearly review (big report thing) that according to some people is very important and other people say is a waste of time because all bonuses etc are decided already – I will put a fair amount of effort into it but I'm not going to drive myself crazy.  Tonight should be mellow until 8pm when a few people from work are coming over to see the coworker that just moved.  I need to get home and spruce the house, it is generally clean but needs straightening.  Hopefully I will be able to get packed for the week in NY too but I'll see what sort of time I actually have....  Hopefully holiday plans are all going smoothly for you all

First day of 27

After the endless day of meetings was over I was wiped out and went home to take a nap.   I did not nap at all because I got sucked into the book I'm reading and then Lars came home and then I had my 6pm conference call....  So no nap.  The 15min quietly reading in bed was restorative though because after my call I hunted for presents and finally found them, they were hidden really well, and then we drove down to the Mall of America to my favorite Sushi place and I ate a ton of sushi, so much I could not finish it all.  We missed the movie time we originally aimed for because there was a wait for dinner so we stopped at starbucks so I could stay awake through a 9:20 showing or Eragon and we met Tim there and watched the movie.  Post movie we went to Perkins for dessert and we caught up on some political gossip and I fell into bed at 12:30.  Eragon was ok, not that great a movie but the concepts are good.  It is similar enough to the book, I was disappointed with the things they skipped and some things they did absolutely opposite from the book but I really wasn't that huge a fan of the book.  They did a great job with the dragon herself, she is the best thing in the movie.  The scenery in general is good too but if you are trying to deide between this movie and another I bet the other is better (except for Borat, that movie was disturbing).

 

Now I shift focus 100% to Christmas and travel plans.  I know I have a bit more birthday on Wednesday and maybe when I get to NY but Christmas is the main event now.  Last year we picked a day and drove to all our local friends to deliver presents and it worked out well so we are doing it again this year.  I need to exercise my logistical brain to pack gifts in a way that they are in the car in the right order so there is no searching in the dark/cold to find the right thing for the house we are at.  Delivery day for us is this Wednesday, first stop will be T&K, second R&S then Timmy then our neighbor and finally Lars can open one thing from me (the pile of presents is killing him).  Thursday my work friend that moved is coming to stay for the night because she is picking up her daughter for the final move, the daughter has been staying with friends the past 3 weeks to finish the semester.  Friday we need to go to the airport right after work so all we will have time for Friday is to pour a huge bowel of food for the cats and lock up – not enough time for mini Christmas, so Wednesday Lars gets to start Christmas.  We will open the remainder of our stuff when we get back after Christmas so this holiday will stretch for over a week for us J

 

Given that busy schedule, I basically have today to finish all the little things, clean some, do laundry, and pack so I don't need to worry about it on the days I have plans.  Once we get to NY I have a bunch of plans but mostly they are have fun with family and have fun with friends.  I'm shopping with my friend B on Saturday just to enjoy that Christmas eve shopping fun and we are gong to go into the city at some point to see another friend perform in a club.  The only downsides are that Lars has to work while in NY so he can't really go away from the house during business hours, and, my sister with kids won't be there at all this year so her waking us up at 6am to open presents will be missed (is #2 a sarcastic statement? You decide).

 

Ok, time to go back to the business of the day.

Happy Dec 18

Today is a popular day to be born; G1, a guy at work, Brad Pitt, and me.  Guy at work I think got tired of me only mentioning Brad Pitt so he gave me this list of other people with today as their birthday; Actor Roger Smith, guitarist Lonnie Brooks, Director Steven Spielberg, Singer Cowboy Troy, Rapper DMX and Actress Katie Holmes.

 

So far all I know is that Lars is hiding presents around the house for me.  There will be no hints so I just need to search the house.   I'm sure we will do something about dinner but I don't know what yet.  I brought in Christmas cookies and brownies today to work so I think I will be sweets maxed out by tonight.     

 

It seems the flu was unavoidable – there are 3 people home with it today from work and friends of ours we saw Friday had just gotten over it meaning Lars was exposed last Monday and we both got leftover germs on Friday.  We both seem to have had a pretty mild case and are both pretty over it.  

 

I have back to back to back meetings today, including a lunch meeting and somewhere in-between meetings I need to do my annual review write up.  I submitted my grade and tuition bill and hopefully I get all reimbursed without a problem, I think I finally learned all the tricks of the system.  

Happy Birthday to Me

Birthday flowers from the parents :) 

Christmas Lights

We took a walk yesterday and took pictures of all the houses that put up lights this year. Let me know who you like best. #10 is actually the back yard of #6 they made a skating rink with lights around it and it is pretty neat.

Unfortunately this walk ended rather abruptly when the virus that friends of our had hit us. No more details necessary, they are gross.

Anyway, since we were sick Sat we sat and watched TV and wrote Christmas cards. I hope to put them in the mail tomorrow.

So vote in the comments, let me know who is best, I have a prize for them. 

12/14

As of today, I am done with Christmas shopping except for maybe if something jumps off the shelf at me, and maybe a Nintendo Wi for Lars, but I'm done with my planned shopping.  I just ordered sweatpants at a fantastic price from this site https://www.shirtsupplier.com/  They actually have white pants, a very rare thing, and they also have red too so a certain squire will be getting a pair.  

 

Last nights class went well.  It was longer then expected because he went over every test question.  I got 5 multiple choice questions wrong and two I (and the class) argued for our answer.  The other three I made a good case for but I was wrong mostly because I read the question to mean a different thing, stupid homonyms in legal terms.  I did pretty well on the essay sections, he did not accept my late copy but I got either full credit or very close on all of them.  There was one trick question though, he asked us to define 'business purpose' and give an example and I think I wrote a good answer but the crazy guy wanted us to put in 'business judgment' and not one of us did.  He said he did it on purpose to have a final little lecture about how our study of business is giving us business judgment and that it is valuable and we should not sell ourselves short.  I suppose it was worth 3 points for the lecture.  I got an A on the test and on the course, now I need him to post the grade super quick so I can submit the bill to work to get reimbursed.

 

Today is my second mentoring session.  I'm not sure I mentioned that I took over mentoring a 4 ^th grade girl from the friend that just left the Company.  Last week was ok, we played games, this week I think we will do the same.   I didn't sign up for this program to begin with because I really don't know what to talk to a 4^th grader about for an hour a week but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I leave at 10:30, get to the school, pick up the kid from her classroom, go to the lunch room and get lunch (yeah school lunch) and then go back to a special room set up for the program where all the desks are in pairs and we eat lunch, talk, then play games.  At the end I bring her back and go back to work.  Not too bad a way to spend a lunch break.

Nice surprise day

Last day of class tonight... I have a nice long break, all the way to the end of January before the next class (stats). I have officially been pursuing my masters degree for one whole year now. It is a 16 class degree so at three classes a year I am a bit under 1/5 done. I really should take two classes a semester one year but work only pays $5000 and that is $1000 under 3 classes. On top of that, I don’t think I have time to give up two evening to be at class plus atleast two other evenings to do homework. The other people doing this program work too and many of them are doing 2 a semester but I bet they don’t have lives.

Today has had a few pleasant surprises; the work friend who had the baby came for a visit and the little baby is very cute and alert for 1 month old. She also had a pretty good baby smell but given the number of babies I’ve been around the last few months I’m starting to think it is soap not baby that smells good. On of the three babies smells very neutral, the other smells kinda bad and this one smells kinda good. On top of a nice baby visit, the offsite had a big potluck lunch and that was a great surprise. There was a ton of tasty food and I now have to keep from grazing the rest of the day since it is in the office next to mine. I also got some good advice for Mom’s Christmas gift and with a work friends help ordered one. I’m not saying what it is because Mom reads this so Dad, the next box that comes addressed to me needs to be hidden from Mom.

Last night I cleaned a whole bunch. Getting all the gifts off the kitchen floor and wrapped and either sent to where they are going, put under the tree, or packed ready for NY made a big difference. I can actually see 99% of the kitchen dining room floor. Lars and I decorated our sad ugly $12.00 Wal-Mart tree and it has a lean to the right this year. I woke up to the distinctive sound of the kitten batting a decoration, good thing only non fragile decorations are on the bottom half. One of the other cats tried to eat the tree a little but decided against it and has ignored it ever since. We have 16 pounds on the tree stand just in case any cat thinks climbing the tree is a good idea.

Time to get back to work – hopefully I will have a grade by tomorrow 

Slow day in blog land

It feels like nobody out there is posting much today or yesterday... all the blogs I read either didn’t post or posted something short so I had nothing to read with my coffee. I had to resort to reading the news and that is never all that fun. Anyone have any good reads I can add to my list?

Work is slowing down for the holiday season. There are lots of housekeeping things to do but there should not be any screaming issues until atleast Jan 8th when the lines come back up. I’m at a bit of a loss with no crisis to deal with but I know that I should use this time to get ahead on all the little things.

Last night I got all the presents that needed mailing wrapped and packed and Lars mailed them today. Hopefully everything survives the trip but I have a feeling that my wrapping paper might not look all that fresh and crisp when it gets where its going. In the interest of space, I did not put any clothing in boxes, they are all just wrapped. One year I went nuts with very special wrapping with ribbons and bows and everything looked really nice and I don’t think anyone (in Lars’s family) noticed. I even spent 20 min wrapping a box that would open without ripping the paper and all the lines lined up and I gave it to Lars’s mom and she just ripped right into it. I think my family is unique in that the wrapping is part of the gift (sometimes). Other people I know go one step further and match the wrapping paper and style to the person and the gift, that is just a little too much investment in wrapping paper for me but I really appreciate her efforts. Anyway, so far I have gone through 3 rolls of wrapping paper from Ikea. It is nice thick paper in cool coordinating colors so it makes a pretty pile of presents. Lars was going to help and he really just is not all that good at it so he was demoted to tape dispensing and label writing. It went pretty fast as a team effort, a human tape dispenser is a nice asset to marathon wrapping sessions. Tonight I need to wrap a bit more but I really really really want to decorate the tree. Both Lars and I are home so I think it might happen.

I turned in my final exam yesterday with 20min to spare and I thought I did a good job. I got into work today and was cleaning up my desktop and closed the word doc with a part of the exam and it asked me if I wanted to save. The very ugly thought occurred at that point that I sent a draft version yesterday and so I checked and yes, I had sent a draft. Thank goodness that I had actually answered all the questions but they were still a bit rough and I reworded and cleaned up a bunch of stuff in the final version. I sent a note with the real copy to my teacher and hopefully he understands. If he insists on using the old version I won’t fail or anything but if he reads both he will see that I wasn’t using the 10 hours in between when it was due and when I resent to rewrite since the changes are pretty minor. Not worth worrying over really but I feel a bit stupid over the mistake...

So otherwise not much new going on. SCA travel is virtually nonexistent until Jan and then it is just a small event. Most of the happenings are real life stuff, my birthday, travel home for Christmas, Cancun in Jan, China in Feb, eye surgery in March... busy in a way but mellow otherwise. Maybe I’ll have a new years party or something fun, have to run that by Lars but I’m not really happy unless I’m planning something 

old template :(

Blogger just added a ton of features including tags and some improved interface with the template. Only problem is it wiped out my customizations. I'll play with it tonight (or soon at least) and have something more interesting and personal.

Weekend Review

Blogger was being odd last week and not posting the posts I mail in from my e-mail. Sorry about the interruptions... Friday just flew by, I got a bunch of work done and got home to get packing for the weekend. I’m a little rusty with packing for 2 after more then a month off. Lars completely forgot the method and was distracted by work all day so we didn’t get out the door until 6. We picked up Josh and got to the hotel no problem and although the name, La Quineta, made be leary for the hotel quality is was a very nice mainstream hotel. It didn’t have a Spanish or Mexican theme at all and the only oddity about it was strange layout in the bathroom but for $45 a night (priceline) it was perfect. Saturday morning we had to get to the event by 9 for a tournament so I rousted the guys at 6:45 and we had our complimentary breakfast and were on the road by 7:30 and we made it in plenty of time for them to sign up. Lars had a great time fighting and won the tournament and I had a very nice time socializing and flitting around. I think being staff for the princess is in many ways better then being princess; I could change in the royalty room, I knew the happenings of the day early, and I didn’t have to be the one followed, fussed after, or in charge of any decisions J Lars and I will definitely fight crown again but it is fun not being top too. We got home about 2am and it was a relatively easy drive. It was great to have a third driver with us since each of us only drove 2 hours and we broke it up well; I don’t mind the annoying back roads that you have to watch out when the road turns 90 degrees in the middle of a tiny town and that you need to slow down to 25mph and you might get stuck behind a tractor. I’m at least more patient with it then Lars so I did that bit while he slept a bit. Josh took the first highway section so he basically cruised, and Lars took the late shift from midnight to 2 and since he had a decent nap it all worked out. It is a pain to leave after an event and drive all the way home but it is very nice to wake up at home with a good day ahead.

Sunday I talked to G2 and Seti way too many times because they were bored driving home and I buckled down at 1 to get my final done. At 6:30 I had all but my final two essays done and I think I did well since I looked up every single answer. It is a longer test then the midterm but I think overall it is slightly easier. I plan on doing the last two essays today and it is due tonight at 8pm. As a reward and to let my brain decompress we went out with Tim to see a movie. We saw Daejavo and it was a decent story and had good suspense and enough of a cool ending to make it worth it. We went out for dessert after and got home just in time to go to bed. I did not get the Christmas tree decorated or the presents wrapped but hopefully tonight that will be done. I need to call both my sisters tonight and say happy birthday; it is my younger sisters 23rd birthday and my other sister’s sons 1st birthday and since 1 year olds are not known for their conversation skills I’m sure it will really be a conversation with my sister. If all goes well, I hope to also squeeze in some exercise and I have my regular 6pm conference call so it will be a full evening.

The rest of the week is fairly normal looking. Class will be short since we are just reviewing the final and then we can go. I hope to do Christmas cards and finish mailing everything this week sometime and there is a pile of projects that I should get around to soon. Next Monday is my birthday and I have no plans. As always it is in the middle of a busy month and I think Lars and I will just go for sushi. Wow, this is a long post, time to send it to internet land and get going with my day.

this was supposed to post yesterday and blogger rejected it! Anyway, I'll update again later but here is yesterdays post;


Last night we successfully decked the halls. Technically nothing is latterly in the hall but the living room is now very festive, the entry hall has some touches, the bathroom has a little bit and our bedroom got decorative bows on the curtains. All in all it took 2 or so hours but we didn't rush and we cleaned as we went. We even got all the laundry done and Lars cooked dinner. I released him to game land while I did a little bit more decorating, try and keep everyone happy. Tonight is school but hopefully after we can trim the tree and I need to do present wrapping so things can get mailed on Monday.

Today is my offsite day and I got a bunch of stuff done that I needed to do face to face with the engineers so I had time to do the grocery shopping at lunch. I am hoping that everything is ok in the trunk for the couple hours I have to leave it. Ironically, I have no frozen foods but I do have fresh veggies and fruit. The temp outside is about 30 so I think everything will be ok for the 4 hours I'm leaving it out there. I picked up some toys-for-tots for this weekend and some candy gifts for Lars, Super Wal-Mart is one stop shopping. The only troubling thing is that I've been to too many Wal-marts and they are similar enough that you feel like you know where everything is but then each one is just different enough to have you wandering the store for 10 min looking for toothpaste. This particular Wal-Mart is one of the larger and I only go when I have time at lunch when working in the plant in WI. Today was maybe my 5 th visit and I just discovered that they sell a fair selection of alcohols way in the back corner of the store (I was looking for toothpaste). It is nice to know the WI laws are more lenient then MN, you learn something every day. The last item of note (in my boring Wal-mart list) is peppermint rediwip. I got some a couple weeks ago and Lars loved it, and I liked it in my hot chocolate. I have a feeling it is a seasonal item so I got two today. Who knows what the shelf life is but three cans in a season should be enough anyway. Tonight, after class, we can have some eggnog with peppermint whipped cream and trim the tree and wrap presents – should be a nice way to end the day.

Tuesday

Time just flew today and I still have stuff to get done.  Today was more or less nonstop meetings but I did get my reservation for the hotel this Friday booked.  We are going to an event and will leave Friday after work and we are leaving the event before the feast (sorry!)  and will be hitting the Great Dane on our way home.  The Great Dane, contrary to its name, neither caters to dogs nor serves dog but it was a good restaurant and I think Lars will like it.  I got our hotel room for $45 in Madison, on the east side, so it is right on our way and is 4h from home and the next morning we only have to go 1.5 hours to the site so we can be there bright and early.  The hotel also says it has breakfast so hopefully it will be enough that we don't need to stop.

 

I have quite a packing list for this event, I have a bunch of odd things to bring but I have a list so I should remember.  My goal was to have Ambrose's gift done but that is not going to happen at this point.  I have quite a few things going on this week – tomorrow is class, Thursday is my company Christmas party AND our professor is e-mailing the exam to be complete by Monday, Friday we are going to the event, Sat will be at the event and driving home so Sunday I must do the exam.  Aside from sewing, I also need to wrap and pack and mail all of Lars' family gifts.  I just went through my Christmas list and I only need one more thing for his family and it is a gift certificate to Lowes so maybe on Friday on our way out of town we can hit one...  Tonight I want to decorate the house and put up the tree and we desperately need to grocery shop although since we will be out Thursday and Friday for dinner we can probably put it off until Sunday.  I also need to buy airline tickets to Cancun, they just came down some in price today so I'll take a look on Thursday.  This is turning into an expensive month but that is what December is all about.

Weekend Review

I am having trouble putting into words just how good a weekend I had. It was one of those fun, no stress, unexpected surprise weekends. I didn't get all the chore like things done I wanted to or even get grocery shopping but I actually feel refreshed on a Monday for once.

After a nice Saturday where we got a lot done, yesterday Lars and I slept late (he later then I) and I had a good conversation with Mom while I cleaned a bit. Lars volunteered to cook breakfast so we had ham and eggs and then we went out to the Mall of America. We found parking right near a door super fast and there were basically no excessive crowds. I was rushing us from one store to another and Lars wanted to know the rush and I said that I knew he wanted to be back for an online thing (game) with a bunch of guys and he said not to worry about it that he just wanted to enjoy the time. We went in a ton of stores, and we found an awesome store that was basically full of stuff I liked. It was not so much an item or two that I like but the entire look and feel of the store was great and I wish my house could be like that. Of course the furniture pieces I liked that really made the look were all multiple thousand dollars but I think that is because they count as art. The great part about the store was that Lars liked everything as much as I did and if we win the lotto we are going back – in the meantime I think I can recreate the painting on the furniture fairly easily so maybe a future project. Next we found a fun kitchen store that was full of samples, we left with a jar of something but Lars grazed enough to be good for another hour. We hit our favorite tea store and a couple other fun places and then we went to Tiger Sushi and had the best, most fresh, sushi you can get around here. After the late lunch we navigated out of the mall efficiently (easier said then done) and we went to Ikea for a quick return. Lars was about at the end of the shopping rope so we picked up dinner at a Greek place we like and headed home. We stuck the food in the microwave to keep warm and just hung out for a while and we both did some internet stuff and around 10 we snuggled on the couch and watched Scrubs and it was two episodes that we had not seen. We went to be at midnight and it was just a lovely day overall I hated to go to sleep.

I think we are at the 85% done with Christmas shopping point. I am going out tonight and hope to get the rest. When I'm in NY it might be fun to go and get some extras but it will be nice to have the bulk done already. I thought I bought Christmas cards after Christmas last year to use this year but I don't know where they are so unless I find them this afternoon I'll pick up more to get going on cards. I also need to decorate inside but that might be an activity for tomorrow.

Back to work – hope everyone had a good weekend too

I'm friends with a film writer

Congratulations on being Top 15!

My friend Mike and a bunch of people from college entered the National Film Challenge in October where basically they get 48 hours to write, perform, and edit a short film. Apparently they get a character, a genre, a prop and a line that they must use and they get this info right as the competition starts. So, Mike and everyone got the genre comedy and I don't know their line or prop but I am guessing the character is Robert Soxer (am I right?) and I think it turned out really well. The film is online, it is Make-up of a Man and if you want to look at some of the other entries there are quite a few on you-tube just search National Film Challenge 2006. I really (also) liked a few of the others but there were some that were just terrible so I think Mike has a shot at wining this one. In any case, top 15 is awesome.

New Look

Mood: semi-accomplished
Weather: cold
Gas: $ don't know, didn't leave the house today
Reading: html websites

So - I redid some things for Christmas, hopefully this looks good to everyone out there. I have an awesome wide screen monitor (very early birthday) but I noticed last time I did a new design that what looks good on this monitor may not look good on others.

Anyway, the picture is of my cardinal out my livingroom window. Once it snows I think I'll do a new header again, I finally figured out how to make them in photoshop. I bought photoshop from some online discount store and it came with no instructions at all so I've been reading help files and clicking alot. I'm pretty pleased I can make something fairly decent that is useful. I also added a picture of the toad that formally resided in my hottub so scroll down and look at the cute little guy.

It is midnight and Lars is almost done working. He took a dinner break and we watched Battlestar Gallactia. That is such a good show I always want more by the end of the episode. I slept really late today so I'm not tired so I think I will go tidy. Tomorrow it is off to the mall and I need to get to make some bread, we are down to one loaf and I'm itching to use my new loaf pans.

National Pie Day - and Lights are finally up

Mood: good
Weather: cold
Gas: $ 2.25
Reading: law text

First - my little thing above is a template I have in blogger. Since I figured out how to mail my posts from my e-mail account I do not often log in and write in blogger. Anyway, today I am so my header is back.

Second - here is the list of holidays for December;
1 World Aids Awareness Day
2 Eat a Red Apple Day
2 National Pie Day
3 National Roof over Your Head Day
3 National Fritters Day
4 Santas' List Day - we hope you are on the "Good" list
4 Wear Brown Shoes Day
5 Bathtub Party Day
6 St. Nicholas Day
6 Mitten Tree Day
6 Put on your own Shoes Day
7 International Civil Aviation Day
7 Letter Writing Day
7 Pearl Harbor Day
7 National Cotton Candy Day
8 National Brownie Day
8 Take it in the Ear Day
9 National Pastry Day
10 Human Rights Day
10 International Children's Day - Second Sunday in December
11 National Noodle Ring Day
12 National Ding-a-Ling Day
12 Poinsettia Day
13 Ice Cream Day
13 Violins Day
14 National Bouillabaisse Day
15 Bill of Rights Day
15 National Lemon Cupcake Day
16 National Chocolate covered Anything Day
17 National Maple Syrup Day
18 Bake Cookies Day
18 National Roast Suckling Pig Day
19 Look for an Evergreen Day
19 Go Carolling Day
19 Oatmeal Muffin Day
20 Eid-Ul-Adha - date varies
20 Games Day
21 Hamburger Day
21 Humbug Day
21 National Flashlight Day
21 Look on the Bright Side Day
22 Forefather's Day
22 National Date Nut Bread Day
23 Roots Day
24 National Egg Nog Day
25 Christmas Day
25 National Pumpkin Pie Day for recipes see Pumpkin Nook 's Cookbook
26 Boxing Day
27 Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day
27 National Fruitcake Day
28 Card Playing Day
28 National Chocolate Day
29 Pepper Pot Day
30 Bicarbonate of Soda Day
31 Make Up Your Mind Day
31 New Year's Eve
31 Unlucky Day

I was just saying how I will NOT miss national pie day and it looks like I am since it is today :( I really should look ahead sometimes. Oh well, I'll have to have national pie day observed some other day.

I just finished putting up the outside lights, the only thing I am missing is my extender cord to plug them all in and it is at our neighbors. I will get it tomorrow probably, they don't look home right now. Lars helped this year so it went way faster and the

e new ladder did help a lot. I really am not a fan of standing on very tall ladders or on the roof but once a year it is ok. Next task is inside decorations and grocery shopping, Lars is working now so I'm heading out solo. Here is a cute pic of Lars' impression of a gargoyle on the roof, pictures of the lights will be up tomorrow.

Dec 1

I'm 'late' writing today (after lunch rather then during breakfast) part because I'm busy working and part because the jump into December means I like to do a bunch of housekeeping things like find my list of odd holidays etc.

Part of the reason I don't write as much as I could is because I'm clicking around on other people's sites keeping up on their life and today I found an AWESOME way to speed that part up curtsey of this site http://www.schnozzfest.com/blog/?p=412. She explains how great Google has come up with a reader so I can just look in one place and see who has posted. I had to actually search 'google reader' to find the link but since I already use G-mail and the spreadsheet program and the calendar this is one more good addition. I am disappointed in two sites that I like to read that do not support feeds; Gone South and Beanmom, so ladies, please enable feeds and leave me a note (if you even read this) so I can read you with ease. I can't wait to show Lars the new feature, he has stopped reading blogs altogether because of the hassle of checking each one daily or remembering the address. This Google reader even has categories so I can group the people I know for real and the internet people. Many friends of mine have been regaled with stories about the internet people I read or the internet babies – Like I said, blogs are books that don't end.

So – set this up, I have never found a reader that worked before and this one is highly recommended.

Last night I was full of busy energy and got a lot of little things done. I packed and mailed a bunch of stuff, I transplanted a plant from a friend, I planted my paper whites and my amaryllis and hopefully they bloom by Christmas. I talked to my mom and cleaned the bedroom and the closet room, I got through a big pile of stuff I have been avoiding in the closet room and I sorted out the huge pile of Christmas presents we just had all over the floor in the dining room. I still have plenty to do to get clean so I can decorate but my teacher decided to give us the final next week so I don't have to worry about it at all this weekend, we don't even have homework and since it is take home I don't need to study exactly.

Tomorrow I will do all my December update stuff, birthdays (my birthday is in 18 days), todo list, and fun holidays.