Kate's Stuff

Sharing happiness！！

2010-04-25T15:01:00.001-05:00

Dear friend,
A good news for you! I bought a laptop from SirSell. Luckily, I was
one of their first 100 customers that day, so they sold it to me at
half price. Only 5 days later, I received my laptop. It is really
high-quality.
Same products, much lower prices! Share my happiness quickly. Come to
visit www.sirsell.com They also sell mobiles, cameras and other
electronic products. Now they have a promotion: every day the first
100 customers will be given big discount.
Good luck!

Bye Bye

2007-06-01T08:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I sat down and looked for alternative sites for my blog. I choose blogger for no particular reason other then a friend used it and it was easy, I didn’t really even look into the other options. I have decided to move to wordpress. There I can have most of my posts public but I can put a password on ones I don’t want the world to see or have the wrong person stumble across one day. It has some nice features, integrated stat counter, some cool templates, and the ability to truncate posts or keep them on ‘top’, all things I missed on blogger. It has some not so great features like upload limits on pictures, the inability to change the template code, and an inferior ‘widgit’ mover but I think I am trading up.

So without further adu, my new address is http://katystuff.wordpress.com/

Mom and aunts, please change your bookmarks. I’ll be updated all the reference points I can remember with the new site so my LJ friends can still click there and Mrs Gone South, Mike, and 8K; I’ll e-mail this to you to update your link to me. I’ll be experimenting with the password stuff, all of you are invited I am only doing the locking thing to keep the casual passer by out of certain topics. E-Mail me if you want the password, kate79@gmail.com .

Adios Blogger! It’s been fun

public or private?

2007-05-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

I have gotten out of the blogging habit… easy to fall in and out of I’m sure you all understand. Once you miss a few days then the posts end up being massive overviews of what happened and that is pretty much what I do. Every so often I get extra time or just into the blogging thing more and post lots of small updates or observations and I think in a few weeks I’ll have more time at work to post but right now is an extra busy time. There is also the factor that this is a very public blog and I have no idea who about half of the people who read are therefore I don’t really express any strong opinions or write on any really personal topics… that is my own choice really but I am thinking about making this a password/invite only blog but I like thinking that something I said helps other people out. I get tons of hits on my ‘cat peed on my bed’ entry and since I know I googled that exact phrase and got no help I think I’m helping. I also get a lot of hits for reasons to party and monkey fabric. I don’t think I have the time to write two blogs so I’ll be deciding soon what direction I am going to go, if you have a vote, email me; kate79@gmail.com.

Since my last post about flooring I have done tons of stuff especially since I did the flooring over the weekend of May 12-13. I was so sore from that flooring I could barely walk for days, it was a very physical job with lots of kneeling, getting up and down off the floor a million times, and manhandling the planks into place. Lars did help, he pitched in on some of the more complicated cuts acting as clamp while I sawed and he also was a huge help by bringing down supplies so I didn’t have to keep running up and down the stairs. He also held up the washer and dryer while I put flooring under them. Sunday night we looked at paint for the room and I think we are going with a dark yet bright blue name liberty so maybe this weekend I’ll get paint on the walls and trim back up and them move all the stuff back in. We have no real plan for the room, it might be the exercise room, it might be the SCA room, not really sure but since it is adjacent to our cool new patio and we are throwing a nice big party we need it to be decent enough for an extra party space and now it is.

This past weekend we went to Ages of War in Iowa. The weather was great especially since we camped in a hotel. Hotel camping means way less gear therefore more people fit in cars and we took two viaciles with 4 people each so we were doing pretty well. It was disappointing that Calontir really didn’t turn up in great numbers but that happens. Lars and I started this event last year with the King and Queen of Calontir and we were really hoping it would live on. It still happened and maybe it will grow next year again, I know if we win crown again we will talk it up. Monday I took an extra road trip to a site that we had to move a ton of stuff and I’m really glad a lot of people turned out to help because it went very quickly but it was an odd way to spend Memorial day.

Next week I start my next MBA class, I got a B+ on the last one and submitted my reimbursement request so hopefully I get the money to pay for the next semester in time. We are feeling a little bank account light because we wrote the big check yesterday to buy Lars’s brother’s house in PA. It wasn’t really that expensive and it is a good investment but writing the check is hard (I made Lars do it). The whole PA house project took way too much effort and entailed way too much drama so hopefully we can put that behind us now that we closed and all the hoops are jumped and papers signed. Lars and I were starting to loose it with all the dates and meetings to sign stuff and now we can go back to our regularly scheduled life.

This weekend is not planned other then maybe painting and maybe sewing~

Flooring

2007-05-25T16:13:00.001-05:00

This was last weekends all weekend project;

It started out with gross old carpet tile and all the junk in the house (I didn't take a picture of that) but I cleaned everything and scraped up all the tile and removed all the basebords and trim to reveal a fantastic cement floor;

And then I worked realy hard for 2 days stright and got it all done but by the end I could barely walk. Next step painting and orginizing all the stuff back into the room.

2007-05-15T09:56:00.001-05:00

Another weekend has past and week begun. Saturday Lars and I (mostly I) drove to Fargo and back for crown. It was a very nice event and there were tons of people I wanted to see and talk to and I got to talk to atleast half of them. The tournament outcome was surprising and I think it even surprised the winners, I’m sure they will be fine and sometimes the unknown is fun because it is obviously not predictable.

Last week went reasonably well. I finished my stats final and I am hoping grades are posted soon so I can find out my grade. I got an A on the paper (1/4) and a B on my midterm (1/4) and an A on my homework/classwork (1/4) and the final quarter is the final…. I am thinking I got either a B+ or an A, depends on the curve really, but I felt much better prepared. I never got the Who’s who finished for crown because it got lost in computer land and I didn’t have time to redo it and also study but I don’t think anyone really missed it.

Sunday Lars and I went to Ikea and got 400 square feet of flooring for the down down stairs room. We got the light blond color that matches the real wood in the rest of the house but since the lower level might get damp I didn’t want anything too expensive. Cork is now entirely out of the equation. I need to clear the deck down there and get going on the underlay stuff but hopefully I can get it all in over this week and weekend (wishful thinking). I’m taking suggestions for paint color down there, I’m inclined to go with a light yellow but I really have no idea.

This week was going to be hectic because I was supposed to be traveling and I shuffled stuff all over the place and now the trip is canceled. I really had work to do with the supplier and now I need to find another time that works but on the bright side I am here all week and have pretty open schedule that will hopefully allow for flooring. I mowed the lawn last night and contemplated gardening, the tulips are done and I have nothing on deck… I’m not sure where to start and I have no garden network so if anyone local knows someone who wants to divide out some daylilies or something I have good spots for them.

I am at the offsite office, suffering from lack of sun but I know that today is pretty gray outside so I’m not missing much. Yesterday was 90 degrees, today is 60, someday we will settle on summer. I need to get working so this is it for now.

2007-05-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

I would like to reject the episode of Gilmore Girls I just watched. They need to re do it. While I agree on some levels it is not a good way to end a show....

Tuesday night

2007-05-08T18:52:00.000-05:00

I am down to 4 stamps needed when paying bills! Everything else is on auto pay or I can pay online. Don't worry mom, the only things on auto pay are insurance and non changing payments so I really do look at all my bills every month to make sure there are no surprises.

Right now Lars is mowing the lawn and it is way easier now that we took down a big section of fence. My next house project is getting the down down stairs (4 level split) put together. Right now it is the junk and kitty litter room and since it is right next to our new patio it needs to be a bit nicer. The pro's to the room are that it has a big closet and is one of the larger regular sized rooms in the house. It also has french doors to the patio. The cons are it does not have a door to the house (just a doorway of odd irregular size), it has a concrete floor, and the foundation wall weeps every so often. I was sold on cork flooring for ages but I've read that it does not stand up to wet too well. I'm thinking maybe pergo from Ikea since millions of people walk on it there and it cleans up nicely it is a possiblity. There is also vinyl, it looks really nice and has a bit of cushin to it but it is the same price as hardwood... I want to move all the garb into that one large closet but that is a longer term project. It just needs to be presentable for the party in a few months.

Lars is done mowing, time to go ride bikes for a little bit~

5/7

2007-05-07T12:45:00.000-05:00

For the first time in ages, the house was actually clean all week and into the weekend so I didn’t have to spend any time cleaning. We had the cleaning ladies on Tuesday so we cleaned for them and then the appraiser came on Thursday so we cleaned again for him and hopefully he was impressed enough to think the house is worth what we want it to be worth (higher is ok too). We should know that hopefully today sometime and provided all went well we can finish the house thing. I spent a frustrating week dealing with the realtor and he really should retire or quit or just go away because he is so bad he disgraces Realtors everywhere. He only works from 3-6 and he never checks hi e-mail and he is likely to call random contact numbers, never the one you are at, and he thinks that replying to Lars’s e-mail was answering me…. He is a moron. It has been fun getting him to actually do any work on this deal but at least the end is in sight.

This weekend was very very productive. I spent Sat sewing tents and a nice evening hanging out. Sunday I had a friends two sons come over to help with yard work and between 10am and 3:30pm we washed all the decks and patios, raked and bagged all the leaves in the hedge, cleaned the entire garage, took down some fence, pulled out and set up all the patio furniture, and painted a bench. They were great kids to work with I got three weekends worth of work done in one. I was wiped out Sunday night so we ate dinner and watched TV and here I am on Monday again.

This week is pretty open at work, no travel or big events. Hopefully it will stay quiet so I can get all the little things done. I have my final exam on Thursday but I’m not too worried because he put the entire exam up on the overhead and we went over all the problems. I have to do my Who’s Who for Crown but I got most of it done this weekend.

2007-05-03T10:27:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe it is Thursday already!

This week has flown, all my normal blog writing time has been taken up by house buying activities. We are at an agreement finally, no thanks to the greedy and dumb realtor. I’m sure the seller, who I’ve spoken to many times, is kicking himself for going to an agent on this since he basically had a buyer already and these guys are a real stupid pair that have delayed the deal over a week. I don’t have time to go into the idiocy that has ensued…

On the flip side of the same project, we are getting our house appraised today and we are crossing our fingers for a good appraisal. Yesterday I mowed and killed all the dandelions and the cleaning ladies came this Tuesday so the house is clean and tidy. I did an extra clean yesterday because they are coming inside to do measurements etc. I wish I got all the patio stuff set up but I didn’t have time and I doubt it will matter much.

Tonight is my second to last stats class. We are turning in our paper and I think we will get a really good grade since we turned it in last week for ‘review’ and we fixed every thing he commented on. I asked how my homework grade is and he said that I’m getting an A on that so hopefully I’ll have two A’s, a B and then the final that provided I don’t bomb it I should get an A-. Tonight he says he is basically going over every question on the exam so I’m going to take good notes and just memorize what I need to know, he better be right about what is on the exam this time, he did not do too good a job on the midterm prep…

This weekend I am sewing tents on Sat and I’ve hired a friends two sons to help with general yard work. This should give me a good start on a nice yard for the party at the end of June. I really have to get invitations out for that, maybe Monday.

Ok, today we are doing a mentor day for all the kids in the program and I have to go help set up.

why I lost 5 pounds this week

2007-04-27T10:25:00.000-05:00

I am stealing a minute to write a little something about my high speed week.

Last Friday I thought I was going to an event with G2 however I had my weekends mixed up and although there was an event they weren’t expecting me… I went anyway and it was pretty fun. It was just a day trip so Saturday I hibernated and just did some little housework things saving up my energy for the week to come.

Monday; Tent Day! Went to G2’s and the group cut out 3 spoke round tents. We got all the roof and walls cut out, the only thing we need to cut out is the little reinforcements etc and that needs to be done in the sewing phase. I snuck in a 2mi run before I went over there but that meant I went straight from work, to running, to cutting and finally home at 11.

Tuesday; I ‘won’ a class in negotiating in the cities. Our BossD signed himself up but then he could not go so he opened it to the group. There were three of us who wanted to go and I won and it was a decent class. I really did not learn anything radically new but I relearned a bunch of things that were good reminders. I also was in the right neighborhood to have lunch with Jenny so we met up and had a good hour at outback. I introduced her to the best thing on their menu, bacon cheesy fries, she is now a convert for life. We sat with another woman from the class and we ended up talking about Chinese toilets for far too much of lunch but it is now one of my missions in life to make sure no woman goes to china without knowing the facts about toilets there. After class I drove directly to meet with my stats group to finish our project. Both of them were late and they were both pretty distractible but we got the majority done. I think we all feel like we got the good part of the deal, I’m doing all the writing and they are doing the math, graphs, and analysis. I told them I was leaving at 8 no matter what so it gave some sort of structure but they are both really nice guys even if they can’t focus for more then 10 min. At 8:30 (I knew I would never actually leave at 8) I drove over to the local fight practice in the cities about 10 min away that Lars was at and hung out until 9. We all went out for dinner and it was a good time. I ordered this really odd special, buckwheat pancakes covered in blueberries, granola, peanuts, and honey. When it came out it was huge, they should put net weight on menus, but it was very tasty. We had to go pick up Lars’s car since he kinda carpooled down to practice but his car was parked in a very odd place to get to from where we were, worked out in the end but we didn’t get home until 11:30 so straight to bed again.

By the way… all this being gone means our house looks a bit disastrous….

Wednesday; I did not leave the house but I did feed the lawn and talked to mortgage people (we are buying Lars’s brother’s house) and then parked on the couch and did the stats project. By 9pm it was done and I think it is really good. It isn’t even due until next week but this way we can get his feedback and fix anything before really turning it in. I started working through my tivo shows but I got sucked into my e-mail and worked from 9-11 on getting my mail under control. I chatted with G2 about this weekend, the weekend I was actually supposed to go to the event, and actually went to bed reasonably on time.

Thursday; I rushed home to talk to the realtor for the brothers house, this man is a moron and is very very very slow but hopefully the transaction goes well. We are buying the house because his brother can’t and the owner wants to sell. My mom gave us good advice as to how to juggle money to make it work and I don’t know for sure yet but I think we might actually pay less per month then we do now plus have income from the rent. Only real bummer is the amount of closing costs we have to pay but it does work out to be the best way. Anyway, I hopped on the elliptical and only made it to just under a mile before I had to jump in the shower and run to class. Lars came home and delayed me by actually wanting to spend some time with me! I have had two busy weeks in a row and he misses me. I made it to class one min early and although I didn’t lean much I didn’t get too confused either. We only have one more class before the final so next week is all review. Hopefully I can digest the entire stats for dummies book I got in the next two weeks. As normal, I got home at 10 and we ate McDonalds and for some reason it really did not agree with me and I spent from 2 am to 4am visiting the bathroom. I kept thinking that I was glad this was happening at home, not at work, traveling, or especially in China.

Friday; I am now in the offsite office waiting for someone to get to a meeting with me. I need to leave pretty soon if he doesn’t have time so I can get to another meeting at the regular office. After work I need to quick pack for the event and get down to G2 and we hope to hit the road by 6ish. We are going to go to a cool club on Sat night and it is corset night so I think it will be really fun. Lars is coming too so he gets to escourt all the women going.

That in a rushed no detail format was my week. Sunday I need to clean so I don’t go crazy because the house has not really been picked up for almost two weeks….

Coffee for one

2007-04-23T10:19:00.001-05:00

Last week a guy in my department retired. He was an ‘old timer’ and had worked on one of the products here since the beginning. Early in his career he was a test rider and messed up his back badly and the whole time I knew him he used a cane. Last year he was using a walker and got back surgery that helped him out but he is just such an active person held prisoner by his body. Every day I would bring him coffee when I got myself a cup and he was always appreciative and we would talk for a few min and then get on with the day. I planned his retirement party, originally it was just going to be our department of 8 going to lunch, and then other people wanted to come so I moved it to one of our large conference rooms. So many people responded that they wanted to come that I had to move it to our building communication room (the one every employee fits in at one time) and ordered lunch for 40. I counted 52 people there and it was a nice low key fun lunch party. Friday was his last day and we all said goodbye but it wasn’t until today when I went to get my coffee that I really acknowledged that he is really gone.

2007-04-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

Boring busy week.

I am not doing anything out of the ordinary or all that special. Work is about the same but slightly less hectic today. I am succeeding in exercising 30-40 min on the elliptical at least 4 days a week and sometimes 5 and I’ve upped my difficulty to 6. I have projects in my head but nothing in the works yet and I’m getting underway for planning Lars’s birthday. Tonight is class, I only have a few more left and then I have a few weeks off and then another class. The most exciting thing that happened is that we got the canvas for tent making so Monday is cutting day and we will assembly like 3 tents hopefully to be complete by boarder skirmish.

I need to try and figure out my homework question ~

2007-04-16T10:27:00.000-05:00

My cell phone still works! It was encased in mud and got rain and snowed on but it still turns on. I won an eBay auction for a new (used) pink Razor phone so when I get that I’ll switch over but it will be much easier now that I have my original chip to transfer. I got the phone for $100 and it comes with a bunch of accessories so I think I got a very good deal and in usual eBay fashion I almost got outbid in the last min but I refreshed every second until I won. I saw a book in the store about how to use eBay and it looked like it was about 200 pages long, I wonder if they mention how important the last 5 minutes of an auction are…

Yesterday, in our great weather, I gardened! Well, I went out side, pruned a lot of trees and shrubs and cleaned up the mess I made and I planted one package of lavender seeds. So far my entire garden consists of about 100 tulips in one flower bed so I need to work on my annual selections so I have more then 2 weeks of flowers. The previous owners didn’t garden other then planting random pine trees all over the laws (that I mowed over since they were mostly dieing and in the way) and the owners before that took all their plants with them and put rocks in every flower bed. I have plans on what to do with most of the beds but I have to remove a couple tons of small rocks as I go. The only flower bed I have no idea about is the one right across the front of the house because the two downstairs windows are only a couple of inches above the ground level. Should I plant in front of the windows and pretend they aren’t there? Or avoid them? So far I’ve left the rocks… I also planted kitchen herbs in two containers I had but they gave me way too many seeds so instead of the orderly picture the package suggested, mine will look a bit more natural and mixed together. I have two pretty containers that I think I’ll do cascading petunias in and maybe I’ll try for more containers because then I don’t have to worry about moving the rocks, at least for this year. Lars even spread grass seed in our back yard in the area that got wrecked while we were pouring the patio and he helped me clear the branches I cut. I’ll probably never have as good a garden as my Aunt but she has a big lead on me, but at least I have a good example. Our friend Timmy’s wife is a master gardener and once she moves here maybe she will help. Timmy said to watch out, if I give her free reign of the yard I will have no grass left in a year. I can’t wait to see her work on the blank slate of their new place.

So far this Monday is better then last Monday but I better get going if I’m going to keep ahead.

2007-04-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

forgot a few things in my last monster post;

1. my cell phone got lost on my ATV ride so if I'm not answering/returning your call thats why. Call the house.

2. My cell was found on Friday! Yeah! I don't know if it works but atleast I can transfer the chip. I'm glad I'm friendly at work and told lots of people to keep an eye out for it.

3. It snowed here, in April. I know it is snowing or icing in other parts of the country but snow in April is not cool.

4. Today is very sunny and nice. I would say it is almost 70 degrees, I hope it lasts.

5. I planted about 100 chrocus bulbs, I have 6 blooming. I don't know if it was the snow or I got alot of duds but the 6 are pretty.

Blaaaaaaaaah

2007-04-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

Days and days have passed since I have posted. I know, it is a pattern of mine but the last week has been incredibly stressful and full. There were high points but every good thing seemed to necessitate the sacrifice of something else. I think the week just conspired against me. I manically made lists, lists for every possible thing I needed to do and then I leave them around the house so I run across them all the time. I have a new habit of writing on the bathroom mirror with dry erase markers to make one last list while I am brushing my teeth, it is working out and sometimes Lars adds annotations that are usually really funny.

Work (like I’ve said ninety million times) has just gotten more busy. I have a new segment added onto my already bloated load but I’m keeping it together. I sorta have the attitude that at some point I’ll get a different position and whoever gets my job finally realizes that it isn’t as easy as I make it look. Usually I keep an even keel but during the week I just got frenzied having to run from meeting to meeting, checking in on dozens of projects and one of the new engineers I’m working with is disgruntled that he got changed to me (other guy got promoted and thus the dumping upon me began). I had a supplier visit this week that wanted to go on a ride. I wish I could do justice to describing a Chinese millionaire, owner of a huge company, going on his first ATV ride. He got lost, a lot, and that is really hard because the trails are really well marked. He just kept deciding to go off the trail on his own. I’m really glad a coworker went with me so he was the leader and I went last to keep everyone in line. They had a great time playing like kids in the mud and flying through the mini course we took them to, this experience will do great things for our companies relationships. I had a good time but work that I wasn’t doing was running through my head. That night the supplier took us to a Timberwolves game (basketball mom and dad) and the US rep working with us has connections to the management so we got a really nice box and 2 court side seats. We rotated through who was in the floor seats but they were so close to the action you could have touched them. Professional basketball isn’t really all that exciting, aside from being really good at it, it just isn’t that intense a sport. The experience was fun but I don’t think I’ll run out to get season tickets. Although that was a really fun thing, it sucked up an entire evening so I didn’t get anything else done.

I sound like a whiner, poor me and atv rides and basket ball games…. But they were both work but ultimately my choice. I stayed up late working on my garb for coronation and it paid off, I got tons of compliments. I am pretty sure that it was the fabric, trim and shape that was impressive – everyone likes tutor more, it is the real princess dress. They don’t take any more work then your average houpe or cote but they are more bang for the buck if done well (but anything done poorly looks lumpy, sack like or weird). I was finishing hand work in the car but by the time the event started it all went together well.

Coronation itself went very well. I think being an outside player is a lot easier. After I stepped down I felt really out of place at the event but I think that was my own doing and the couple who stepped down looked happy. G2 looked great, her King looked awesome too – it is a late period reign and the clothing was just spectacular. The day flowed well and there were a lot of people there to talk to. I’m looking forward to a good SCA season and it will be busy as staff but it will be fun.

Today I hope to exercise, clean the house some because I’ve completely ignored the kitchen all week, and maybe get some seeds planted. I know I have a list of things to do around here somewhere.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter to all celebrating. I am at least celebrating the Hallmark side of the day, I am having 9 people over for Easter dinner so now I know why people have dining rooms.

I have not posted in a while, same reasons as before for work (that grows exponentially) but I've done some fun things the past few days.

I got roped into helping do an egg hunt at work. There were three of us who were going to put candy in 300 plastic eggs then hide them Wed night at work. Well the first guy dropped out early but volunteered to do the counting the next day. The other woman led me on until 11am the day we were supposed to be hiding the stuff and then she bailed too. Since I physically had the eggs and candy I just did it myself. Lars helped fill the eggs and I spent about 2 hours hiding eggs on ever desk and in every common area. The prize was a big Easter basket and I think the whole thing went over very well. Only a few people really went nuts looking for the eggs and I'm sure some people never noticed there was an egg on their desk. The bright side of doing this alone was that I got a ton of credit I was not expecting and I had a good time overall.

Thursday night I had another stats class, the teacher is getting slightly better since now knows we feel he is a bad teacher. I actually left having learned something and that was good.

Friday I had off! I had a very nice day sleeping in, working on my dress, and doing things around the house I had intended to do for a while. I also went grocery shopping with the millions and millions of others and that was not so fun. I think Easter tops Christmas for crazies in the store. I had pre-ordered a leg of lamb because to me that is Easter dinner but to the great state of MN it is not. I now believe that lamb is more Jewish then Catholic since I used to live in a very Jewish area and lamb was plentiful and not I don't and it is not... At least I know it is fresh. It is almost 10lb of lamb so I need to get it in the oven in a few hours.

Final topic, how did I end up doing dinner for 10 when I have 0 family in the state? Well, it is entirely my fault - First I invited 3 others, Jenny who I worked with and is a good friend and her Ex has her kid this holiday, Josh who's family is also all out east and he is also a very good friend, and Timmy who just moved to MN to work at the same company as Lars and his wife is still in Mi until the house sells. That would have made 5 for dinner, totally doable. Then we remembered our Friend Scott who is by himself (6), our neighbors who weren't planning to do anything (10), and Jenny called saying another friend from my old work was abandoned by his family, can he come too (11). I'm planning on 10 because Scott said he was not coming but I'm going to make sure there is enough food just in case. Seating is the real issue... my table seats 6, I'm adding another table in an L and hoping we all fit. Fortunately 2 of the 10 are kids. Speaking of that, I need to kid proof a bit. I'm not worried about cooking, the lamb will take 5.5 hours, the veggies just need steaming and people are bringing salad, potato's, bread and desserts. Jenny is also bringing 4 plates, glasses and 3 chairs meaning I only need to find one more chair. I think I'll have to take a picture of this when it is all done.

PS. Dad, Lars has caught the bug. He now needs an easter basket so I am off to put one together.

Weekend review

2007-04-03T11:21:00.001-05:00

This weekend was far more productive then I would have thought. I had cleared the day figuring I really would not feel like moving around much and my eyes really surprised me. I think my procedure must have been easier on me that Lars’s was last year because he was not in great shape the next day. Lars really really wanted to go to an event this weekend so I got a ride from K to my followup and I felt so good that we went shopping for hours after. I got two pairs of shoes, one cute and practical and one so impractical I’ll probably only wear them twice but both were on sale. K also got shoes and was tickeled pink that they had shoes that fit her right, a constant problem in her life so we started off the shopping trip well. We didn’t go anywhere too different, but, shopping with her was way more fun then with Lars who is really very good but he does not want to go through every aisle and look at all the clearance stuff. I was fairly restrained but I did find two great garden containers for either the front porch or back deck, I need to decide, but they are really nice looking and were marked down to $13 each.

Sunday Lars and I went down into the city to pick up a craigs list purchase. We met at a Panara and since we were there we had lunch and it was nice to be out with just Lars for a change. On our way back we decided to check out a few furniture stores since the desks Lars is using are really looking bad. They have done their time, they are both 7 years old and were the first major furniture purchases we made together so I am a little sad to see them go but after 2 states and 4 moves and constant use they deserve retirement. We looked at Hom furniture first because that is where I saw the desk I liked best. I don’t know what it is about but Lars and I get completely ignored in furniture stores, this happened last year too when we got our couch. Anyway, we wandered around the entire show room looking for desks being abjectly ignored by all the sales people and we finally had to ask the customer service desk where they were because we didn’t want to keep wandering. It ended up being upstairs so we took a look, and after we were basically measuring the desks and comparing features finally a sales person arrived. He was the most downie bird sadsack of a sales man ever and it looked like we were putting him out to even talk to us. We left a little irritated and tried the next store down the road, a JC Penny furniture store – they actually didn’t have any desks but they referred us to Office Max a few doors over and we figured we could at least get new chairs. We found great chairs and we found a cool glass desk that we ended up buying on the spot because it wasn’t too expensive, it was the right size, and I think it will look good in the room. We got everything home but we have to find homes for the old desks before we move in the new one so it is just sitting in its boxes. For the price of one desk we only mostly liked at HOM, we got two good chairs and a desk so it was a productive day. I have plans for one of the desks, I want to move it into my fabric room to replace the folding table in there but if anyone wants the other it is free for the taking!

I did not get much sewing done, I’m at a point where I need advice so I’m going over to G2’s tonight for help and by the end of the last couple days my eyes have been tired. I am still very pleased with my eyesight and the only annoying part is the plastic shields I need to wear at night to make sure I don’t rub my eyes in my sleep because they need to be taped on and the glue from the tape refuses to get off my skin so I feel a little like a post-it note.

I can see!

2007-03-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

Surgery was a success. The surgery itself was really pretty painless, the following four hours were rough and I'm not 100 percent but I can see!

More tomorrow

1 day left with Glasses

2007-03-29T09:33:00.000-05:00

Wow, more then one comment! I'm amazed :)

Work has mellowed this week, I suppose you can get used to anything. I am getting ready for my eyesurgery tomorrow, I have a list of stuff to get at the store at lunch and I want to tidy up so I don't trip over anything. Lars was fine the next day so hopefully I will be too and I can finish up my dress. I am also starting to plan a big party for Lars's birthday, I have a caterer I'm talking to and I think the band idea is out but I'm looking into renting cool video game systems. I need to get moving on spreading the word, maybe save the date cards, because the weekend before 4th of July can be busy.

I have class tonight and we are supposed to get our midterms back. I never did write him an e-mail with my grievances and I'm torn about telling him. I'm not sure why it should come to me saying something, nobody in the class likes him... It is the Midwest passive aggressive pervasive attitude that is letting this slide so far, everyone will talk behind his back and nobody is telling him. I am pretty sure that people wrote some strong opinions on his midyear review that he won't see but I can bet nobody will say anything to make this class better, not even administration. I think I might give him a few positive suggestions so hopefully he improves a bit. I have a feeling that he won't be back again. Lars said he had plenty of teachers that were really bad and only kind of spoke English, he would learn from the book, it is a common thing in engineering programs. I have been very lucky, the majority of my teachers can actually teach.

back to work for me but if there are any other topics people want opinions on I'll be glad to respond.

Wedding gifts

2007-03-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

I got a request from Gone South about the social correctness of a bride requesting money directly as a gift. I got married 2 years ago so I have an opinion and it is fairly old fashioned because when I read the new style wedding sites most disagreed with me. In my opinion it is tacky to request anything directly for a wedding, it is the ‘job’ of the bridal party and parents to suggest where we were registered or what we may like. I don’t know how I grew this opinion, my parents and grandparents really never seemed to make a big deal about things like this, but in my head I firmly believe that a wedding is a celebration of the union and gifts are not required, any gift given is a statement by the giver that they approve of the couple’s choice and wish them well in life with XYZ item to help them or remind them of the wedding.

I also believe that one should register to help give guidelines of what the couple likes and would appreciate. I know brides that got mad because someone bought the same thing at a different store or a different brand thing. I think that is also tacky since a gift is a gift (see above). A lot of people like a registry for the inspiration, but, cash or a check is never a bad gift especially if the giver doesn’t like what is on the registry or there isn’t anything left. Leading me to my next strong opinion, what is a good wedding gift. I believe that a wedding gift should be a permanent thing, something that the couple can keep for years and think, “My aunt Pam gave us that” etc therefore electronics, consumables, clothing are not good wedding gifts. When money is flat out requested I feel like the couple is saying that the givers contribution will be purposely lumped with everyone else and that the couple does not care particularly. I’m sure that there are people who feel quite opposite and in preparation for my wedding I read the sites with all the different opinions and they didn’t change mine. I won’t fault someone for there choice, but, I feel a little bad when they have no memento from Great aunt Grace or their wedding.

I know some people strongly feel that money is the right gift to give and we appreciated every dollar, but bottom line is that I wouldn’t have asked for it directly and I grimace when I get an invitation that includes a request like that.

10 things

2007-03-27T10:59:00.001-05:00

I feel guilty for not posting, so many things have been going on and I have been so busy that I just don’t have time for anything at the moment.

Here is what I would have posted about over the past week if I had time;

1. Thursday 3/22 was my last day in contact lenses, I am getting eye surgery on Friday 3/30 and your not allowed to have contacts on your eyes for a week. I am excited and scared at the same time, I really hope it works out but I don’t really remember a time I didn’t have glasses or contacts. At this point it is part of my self image. Also, what will I do with all my contact stuff? And the free space I will get by getting rid of it? I’m not sure I can get rid of my glasses… I still have Lars’ from last year.
2. I have had my work load literally doubled in the past week. Last night I was up to 9pm with work with only a 1 hour break to exercise.
3. I have exercised every day except for last Friday, I am now easily doing a mile and a half on the elliptical. Only real problem is that it take longer then one 30 min TV show so I have to hop off the machine and start the next show. Running to shows I like really makes a difference.
4. I did some spring cleaning over the weekend, I moved stuff in the kitchen to hopefully better places, flipped the mattresses, exchanged wintry living room accessories for summery ones, I even made a cool birds nest out of chenille yarn as a coffee table center piece
5. I successfully put the arms on my dress, this was harder then any other one I’ve done because the sleeves were lined and the dress is lined and the bodice has interfacing so I was lining up 5 layers of fabric. It actually worked and this marks the first time I correctly lined any garment. Now all I have to do is some minor fit changes, the hem, the hooks on the front, make an underskirt, and sew on trim.
6. I order the trim from cheep trim plus 4 other trims I only kinda want because I needed to spend $65 for their min order. They are trims I like so I’m sure I will be glad in the future to have them.
7. It was 80 degrees yesterday, it was 30 degrees last Tuesday… Hopefully spring has sprung
8. My crocuses are sprouting, I left a straw by one all winter as a marker and there is hopefully little points. My tulips are also starting to sprout, it better not snow again.
9. I am starting to plan a big party for Lars’ 30th birthday on June 30th (his birthday is the 29th) so if anyone knows a good caterer or reliable people to do party serving I’m open to suggestions. The theme of the part is ‘things Lars likes’ so it should be very fun but since we are having it at our house I have a bunch of yard work to get done.
10. G2 and I are finally getting underway with tent making, maybe I’ll have it done by the party?

10 things are enough, trust me I’ve been busy. I go non stop all day and then I fall asleep.

Big update

2007-03-21T10:42:00.001-05:00

I have a thousand new work projects that I haven’t had time to breath at work over the past few days. I fully intended to post yesterday but got about 3 lines in and then another emergency had me running plus I had all the system work I couldn’t do in China to get done. I just had a meeting cancel so I find myself with a few extra min and since I can’t take a nap at work, I figured I would update the world.

This past weekend was nice and mellow. I don’t know if it was jetlag (doubt it) or that I had coffee too late (most probably) but I was up until 3 am on Saturday night. I was watching my Tivo that I had built up and doing a puzzle and just hanging out and Lars joined me about 1am and so we both finished the puzzle. It was a really hard one but it was a very pretty picture in the end, just a lot of blue and trees and for a while there I was just looking at the shapes of the pieces and not the picture to make it work. Anyway, staying up so late made me sleep late and then I decided to go work on my dress at G2’s and that motivated me into doing some cutting and sewing. I don’t know how great this will look since it isn’t a style I usually wear but it is coming out fairly well. Monday night I did the sleeves and they look really good, the lining fit just right. Today I hope to look for some trim online since I don’t have any more of what I used for Lars’ and it just needs something.

Over the past 4 days I have been trying to get back into my running routine, I let it slip badly when I was traveling and the week before was so hectic I only ran once. The fist day back on the machine was hard but now I’m back up to my normal speed and level. Pretty soon the roads might be clear enough to actually run outside, I have a nice 1.5 mile and 3 mile route and although I’ll miss running to a TV show, running outside always seems to burn more calories. I don’t have class this week so I’ll have the chance to actually exercise every day!

TV – news, not that I live by TV but I was getting pretty disappointed that the shows I liked were either gone or going downhill. Over the past few weeks we have started watching some very good new shows that hopefully stick around; “The Black Donnalies”, and “The Riches”. Both are pretty dark but well done, another dark one is “the Unit” recommended by my parents and we have been watching it for half a season now and every episode has been good. I’m also watching “How I met your mother” and it is in the Friends style but more funny less drama. “The new adventures of old Christine” is back and the first few episodes were funny and “Two and a half men” is being funny again too. On the other hand, I don’t know where ER went but it has been gone for a few weeks, Phyced is an awesome funny new show but it is in reruns already, Gilmore Girls is not as entertaining as it used to be, they are stretching it a lot and Rory has gone the way of Ann of Green Gables in that she has gotten so ‘good’ she is not unbelievable. Scrubs I hear is loosing its main character so I don’t know if that means it is over or if they will go a new direction but of the last three episodes, 1 was really bad and the other two were fairly decent, I think they are slipping. My reality TV for this season is “Top Designers” and “The Apprentice” and both are ok, Apprentice is getting old but still is a fun live drama and Top Designers is great because I like the decorating and art stuff they do but I feel like they don’t get enough time on each challenge and it would be way better if they got an extra day per challenge. Finally, my soap opera in space “Battle Star Gallactia” is as always really good but they keep doing the cliffhanger thing, plus, they killed off a character I really liked. I don’t think she is really dead, I have the distinct feeling that she is some sort of Cylon and will be back. I know it sounds like a lot, but I really don’t watch anywhere near the amount of TV I could and with TiVo it is so easy to watch a series because you never have to worry about time conflicts, you watch them when you want.

This weekend is an event with G1 and G2 so that should be fun and now I must get back to work.

Pictures of China

2007-03-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

Part one; The Engineer (in many of the pictures) has another batch he is going to share with me.

China

2007-03-16T09:07:00.001-05:00

I think I have recovered from China, I slept all night and feel normal today... I came home with 1 day to study for a midterm in a class where the teacher really does not do well with teaching. I have no doubt he knows his stuff in general but teaching should not be his career move. Sometime today I need to write him an e-mail with some of my complaints with his teaching style, the number one complaint is that he doesn't ever seem to know what he is going to do in class and for the first hour he fumbles around, eventually saying something on topic. Sometimes he goes into long and even reasonably interesting explanations of stuff to then say 'that has nothing to do with this class' I want to point out that we are each paying over $2000 for the class and we expect to learn something.

Wednsday night consisted of me cramming because he really didn't say what to study and Lars went to WalMart to get me a new graphing calculator because his from college died. It died due to serious neglect, the poor screen only would display random digits. He can't bring himself to throw it out though, it took him through high school and an engineering degree. Anyway, yesterday I had to find time to do the homework assigned and to catch up with all my work from when I was gone. Luckily I had decent internet so I took care of the majority of my e-mail from there but there are some things that just need to be handled with a phone call.

Today is St Patrick's Day and I am from a very Irish family that never particularly celebrated therefore I really don't have a tradition in my head. Work is having a green clothing competition so I'm wearing 3 green t-shirts, green cargo pants and for the official counting I had a ribbon in my hair, a hat, a scarf, a sweat shirt, and my coat but I think another guy beat me, I'll have to wait for the end of the day. The price is a $40 gift card so that was worth wearing a bunch of green.

This weekend I have no real plans. Lars says he wants to play video games (big surprise) and I think I'll start and possibly finish garb for coronation. I also have 11 new DVD's from China to watch and all my China pictures to post.

Anyone else have good plans for the weekend?

2007-03-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

I am home! The flight was fine, it definately could have been better. I was on the top deck of a 747 but seated next to an old Japanese man that farted alot. The flight attendent doted on him and more or less ignored me and gave me dirty looks for being in her way (ie. in my seat). The food was seriously subpar too but I watched 2 movies and studied and slept and we got in about 40 min early. I cleared customs in a record 5 min because business class gets to deplane first and our luggage came out first so I was waiting on the curb for Lars at the schedualed arrival time.

I have slept in my own bed and now it is time for dinner, no wheel of death~

2007-03-12T04:57:00.001-05:00

I think I am officially ready to leave China.

Shanghai is a good city... It goes on for miles and miles and on a (rare) clear day you can see all the way to the ocean and it is city the entire way. The buildings here are awesome, they seem to each want to outdo each other for modern look and we had fun naming the buildings in the skyline (batman building is my favorite). The hotel is the Radisson Shanghai and it is in the center of the city on what is their times square. It has a very distinctive flying saucer top that is easy to navigate by because I ended up lost in a shopping plaza and popped out on a random street blocks away from where I thought I was and I could still find my way back. When I get back I’ll post the pictures I took, hopefully they came out ok.

The weekend was fun, the engineer I have been traveling with and I went all over the city and we bargained and bought all sorts of stuff on Saturday and we went to a huge Hindu temple where we took a ton of pictures and hopefully did offend too many people in there praying (bowing a lot mostly, I’m assuming they were praying). With the shopping we couldn’t go too crazy because we have to fit it all back in the bags we brought but Engineer was looking at a cool tea set that he sorta wanted and I started the negotiation process by offering a quarter of what the first price was and then we waked away because he really didn’t care much about it, anyway, the guy ran after us and sold the set for 60rmb, about $7, and he could not pass up that deal. Luckily he brought a decent size extra bag, a bigger one then I did, so I’m taking his bag and all the bulky stuff directly home since he has 3 more days in Japan and didn’t want to do two sets of customs and baggage claim etc. This works out well for me and him because with the extra bag everything I got too fits and I can check it easily. Engineer used to work for Ford so Sunday we took a trip out to the Ford dealer here just to say we did and we were a spectacle in the showroom because we were the only ones looking at the Navigator, the 4 door car is considered too big here and nobody was interested at all in the SUV but he helped design that vehicle so we were checking it out. Next we went to the Ritz with a supplier from the first stop, his wife and kids (they are the ones that live in the hotel) and an employee of our Company that moved over here with his family. It was a huge group and there were 4 kids under 3 and it felt like a family thanksgiving or something with everyone chasing a kid. The Ritz Shanghai is the same as the Ritz anywhere, fancy and over the top and the food was great. After that Engineer and I went to the ChoGarden market for more shopping and site seeing and we had tickets to a Chinese acrobat show at 7:30. The show was a show, I’ve seen similar troupes in the US but we had great sets, third row center, we could see everything. It was such a ballet like performance and I had such a busy day I nodded off in the middle but I don’t think I missed much. Engineer also fell asleep for some but all in all we both were glad we trooped across town for the 3rd time in one day.

Today we went to the last visit in China and Engineer ran to get his plane and now I’m here solo for the evening. I don’t have any fantastic plans, I should really look at my homework but basically I’m just worn out from the last 10 days. Thinking back I feel like we really didn’t do too much, a lot of time is spent getting to and from places but I think it was worth it. I made good business contacts and I think I understand the product better now due to copious amounts of time confined to a car with Engineer. I walked down town to get some McDonalds because I was hungry and I’ve had McDonalds in every country I have visited (that had them) so I couldn’t leave without sampling their Big Mac. I had to will myself to actually leave the hotel and face the throngs of people again, a sign I’m just tired because I really don’t mind crowds, but here people don’t really have personal space boundaries. I am glad I have NYC training for walking quickly in a crowd, ignoring people selling me stuff, and dodging cars. The energy level really reminds me of NY but it is just way more spread out and varied from the glass and steel order of rows and rows of downtown Manhattan. I am pretty tired of playing charades for just about everything, I shouldn’t complain because I only know about 10 words of Chinese but trying to communicate is really difficult. McDonalds was a lot of pointing and gesturing at the menu and all the shopping we did contained overly dramatic facial expressions to show that I thought they were selling something too expensive or a pantomime of what I was looking for like a necklace. I had fun doing it some but I’m glad I don’t have to do it all the time. I am also sick of the smog, there is so much air pollution some days you can’t see across the street, the air is thick and in Chongqing is was even worse, there just are no controls on the junk pumping into the air from cars and factories. People also smoke here all the time and everywhere and there is no such thing as a nonsmoking section... Right now I am just not motivated to do much more and I can’t wait to get home to my own house and husband, clean air, normal food and I even miss work a little. I have one last bit of shopping to do, Boss left without getting his kids presents so I have to go find something and I wanted to get Timmy some candy. Tomorrow is an early morning and a long day of travel, I have a 10am flight but I need to navigate a taxi and the maglev (fastest train in the world) so I’m planning on leaving around 7:30. I have an hour in Tokyo and get on the next plane back to MSP at 3:45... I will be back in the US about noon so I arrive earlier then I left.

I promise pictures soon – the movie from yesterday was requested by my mom who does Ti-chi and wanted a movie of people doing some in the park (I didn’t add the music, they had that playing)

2007-03-10T17:40:00.000-06:00

For Mom - Peoples Square in China

China day 6

2007-03-09T10:19:00.001-06:00

So it has been a couple days... internet in Chong Qing left something to be desired but the hotel was still good. The supplier we went to see there was huge, I’ve never seen a bigger facility. ChongQing itself if the highest population city in the world, there are 3 MILLION people living there. It is a slightly deceptive number because it is a pretty huge area but the city itself is at least 20 miles square. There are huge apartment buildings going up everywhere and everything seems new or less then 10 years old. There was a mall under our hotel and we all went out after dinner and had a pretty good time. All meals in ChongQing were traditional Chinese wheel of death scenarios, there is a huge lazy susan in the middle of the table and all the ‘special’ food is put on it and spun around to you and you have to be polite and take what crazy food lands at your plate. Luckily with my boss there he is the senior one and I can get away with eating only the normal stuff.

Tonight I am back in Shanghai and tomorrow and Sunday we have off and are going to see the sights and hit the market. If a certain princess needs anything in the pearl or jade family let me know because I was told there are fantastic prices. I think I am buying another suitcase to accommodate my purchases...

It has been a grueling pace but I’m in the home stretch now.

2007-03-07T05:16:00.000-06:00

Items served at lunch today;

Goose feet
Jelly fish
Pig intestine
Beef entrails
Roast pigeon
Fish soup (including fish eyeballs)
Pork fat (fried, because what makes fat better then frying in fat)
I could go on but I would rather not think about them.... I did eat some rice, some over cooked corn, what I hope was a potato pancake and my granola bar in the car after.

Today went very well actually, we got a lot done and saw a very good facility. The drive was uneventful and now I am in ShangHai in another beautiful hotel room and as I was writing the doorbell rang and I was delivered a fruit plate. I won’t eat it now because we are going to dinner in a restaurant with what is supposed to be a fantastic view and I’m hoping food that is ‘Western Friendly’.

There are a few topics rolling around in my head that I plan on posting about;
hideous toilets
Sudden movie star status
Chinese men

Here’s hoping tomorrow goes well....

2007-03-06T04:27:00.001-06:00

Day 2-3 in China.

Last post was made from the airport and we got on the plane and arrived in China without incident. It was a 3 hour flight and I watched “Raising Helen” on yet another extremely comfortable and reclining airplane seat. When we landed we exited the plane onto the runway and that is always fun with wind and luggage on the steep steps but we made it ok. My first view of China was that it was very ordinary looking, I suppose it is communums but nothing is really all that different from the next thing and a lot of things look really old and tired. Customs was no problem and since I and the two people I’m traveling with are all taller then the general population it was easy for us to keep track of eachother. We were picked up by a driver who spoke zero English but it felt good to finally be getting somewhere where business could be done, not just endless travel.

We drove for about 3 hours and it was urban the entire way. China has more cranes and construction going on then anywhere I have ever seen. There are farms nooked in everywhere, either fish farms or veggie in greenhouses but they are literally inches away from a factory or an apartment, everything is all mixed together. Fortunately the road we were traveling on was great, better then a lot of American highways but the drivers were all a bit on the crazy side. I found out that the diving got worse when on the city streets and little things like solid white or yellow lines mean nothing to a good Chinese driver. I am more or less trusting that it is not my time to die because that is about how generally dangerous driving in this country is. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel and it is beautiful. It is totally modern and we are in club suites and that means that we didn’t even have to check in, we were taken directly to the 31st floor and offered drinks and snacks in the club lounge while they checked us in. My room is extremely nice and has all the comforts of home plus a nice robe and slippers. I havn’t spent too much time in it but it is 100 times better then the Japan hotel and atleast as nice as the nicest US place I’ve ever been. The supplier we are meeting here is American and the two people living here for a few months are living in the hotel. The main person we were here to see is living in the hotel with his wife, 3 year old and a 6month old and they have been here since January. We all went to dinner yesterday and he insisted on keeping us up until atleast 9:30 to get us over the jetlag. We talked business and general stuff and I finally got back to the room about 10 and then spent an hour on work.

This morning I got up and worked out, the gym was pretty crowded with other Americans, apparently this is a good business hotel. We left for the factory after breakfast and after a death defying ride there we spent about 7 hours going over processes etc. The Chinese, to keep costs down, do not heat their factories and the temp here today was about 35 degrees. After the -10 or so I’ve been living in I thought I would be fine but I never spend more then 5 min outside a day. Today my fingers were turning blue by the end but it was a very productive day. Tomorrow we go see another few facilities connected with this one project and we will be in Shanghai tomorrow night. Now I’m off to dinner, ironically we are going to a Japanese place but I like sushi so I don’t mind the irony....

2007-03-04T19:00:00.001-06:00

I am in Japan... by the time any of you read this I’ll be in China and unfortunately we are skipping the Korea section due to a little snafu in Japan.

It all started very well, we left ontime from MSP at 9:45am and business class is a very spoiling experience. Domestically the seats were not all that different, they were wider and had little table space in between. The real difference was the service level, they immediately had drinks and then a lunch and then a snack and this was all between MSP and Washington. The food was very good, I suppose when you only have to prep for 12 there is far less room for error. Transfer to the second flight was also easy, the Washington airport was done in a charming ode to early 80’s in green and purple but easy to navigate. The business class for international is great. We each had our own pod chair that was fully adjustable and didn’t actually go flat to sleep but you could really stretch out. The food was good again but they served dinner at 4pm, they were trying to get us all to go to sleep. The dessert was terrible, I know, I’m being very picky here, but it was a peach tart and it was absolutely frozen solid. The stewardess swore that is the way it was supposed to be served but I think someone forgot to put the microwave step in her instructions. I watched two movies, Stranger then Fiction and X-Men 3, both were good and I think Stranger the Fiction was very well done, it had a bunch of levels and a story within a story. I slept about 4 hours and missed the breakfast but we landed an hour early. I think the best part about business class is the lounge. It is a nice private area with internet, outlets that fit my laptop plug, and nice snacks and drinks. I had a cappuccino and talked to Lars for a while and then we left to go to our flight.

Things were still going well, we got seated first and dinner orders were taken... I sat next to a very nice guy who worked for Nike and we talked sneakers for a while. After about 10 min we noticed that we did not seem to be taking off and then we got the news that the flight was canceled due to weather. They shuffled us all off and nobody really had any information. According to our bodies it was 3am and the three of us were not really functioning clearly. We got sent to a shady Japanese hotel the had cement hard beds and there was no internet in the rooms. We didn’t have a p hone that worked in Japan and the Northwest desk was closed so we were freaking out a little and in a group of about 20 other Americans similarly freaking out. Finally we got our Company after hours travel company who got us reserved on a flight to china the next day. We paid almost 1200 dollars for tickets and we are skipping the Korea section but we actually got a good plan going today. We are all back in the lounge drinking coffee and waiting for the next flight. Next stop China, hopefully this was the only snafu...

Snow part 2

2007-03-02T11:03:00.000-06:00

So this is the back deck. I think it is about 3 feet, it is past my knees. Needless to say today is a snow day from work. I've got the laptop going but nobody is really doing anything since they are all home too. I leave for China tomorrow, I hear it is 55 degrees there, I'll post anytime there is good Internet, now I must go shovel the deck before it collapses.

2007-02-28T15:33:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I spent 10 hours in a car for a 3 hour meeting. Luckely, I didn't really have to drive because the other person really likes to and I brought Dan Brown's Deception Point on cd so we were entertained for about 8 of the 10 hours. The meeting went well but I didn't get much other work done yesterday. Today I'm in the offsite office and I usually get a lot done here but I had a massive meeting that was quite productive and then a (completely unrelated) conversation with someone that was a lot like banging my head into a wall and I don't think anything I said got through. Now I'm fairly frustrated and not only do I need to do my normal job but I have to do this other persons too. Atleast I got through yesterdays stuff fairly easily so I'm up to date in that respect.

Today I just have a general anxious feeling, there is a big snow storm coming, I'm trying to pack and study and spend time with Lars and things just get compacted. I know everything will work out really, I think I just need to work out and/or take a nap, I'm not sure what will make me feel better. The cleaning team came yesterday so atleast I don't have to clean anything tonight and I can enjoy the clean for a few days. They reconditioned our wood floor and it looks really nice, I like the work they do especially because I don't have to do it. They do make fun of Roomba, their Dyson laughs at it. Little do they know that even if I had a Dyson, Dysons don't clean by themselves so I'll take the less powerful roomba and have questionably clean corners but not have to actually operate the vacuum other then push a button and empty him.

Well I better get going home and finish packing. I got all but a few shirts and a pair of shoes packed for what I think I need for clothing and it all fits in the carryon so far. I still need to pack all the not clothing things like tooth brush, vitamins, business cards, gifts for the people we meet (extra large Hershey bars) etc but I still have a little carry on space and my backpack to go.

testing?

2007-02-26T11:46:00.000-06:00

My blog is not updating via my normal method so this is a test so see if it works now...

I've planned out my afternoon of errands for China, hope I get it all done today because I'm running out of days!

2007-02-26T11:36:00.000-06:00

Apparently my Friday post never posted, I don't know what happens but I really did not say too much anyway. This weekend was fun in a surreal sort of way; Friday K gave me a huge pile of maternity clothes and baby clothes because she wants them out of the house and I'm 'next' in line. This was a big surprise but hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth so I need to find a home for all this (currently unnecessary) stuff. We hung out with T&K for longer then usual and didn't get home until late so I got up early to do the buttonholes, I ended up putting 10 on each side and they came out ok – I packed for the event that I considered extremely important to go to because I promised the person the outfit is for I would deliver it there and even with a foot plus of snow predicted I woke up Lars and we went to the event around 10. Friends got into a minor car accident on the way to this event, they are fine, but the roads were nasty to drive on. The event was more tiny then usual because of the weather and lots of people didn't make it but those who did had a good time and I found transport for the outfit so by now it should be in his hands. I really would have liked to see if it fit right but I sent the extra fabric and if it needs modifications they can be done. The event was shortened due to weather so by 4 we were on our way home. The roads were still drivable but Lars was more of less white knuckle driving so we decided to skip any of the after gatherings and get home while we still could. Once we got home I shoveled for a while and we more or less had a complete extra day because we both just stayed up so late watching movies and looking at the snow. Sunday it was still snowing so we gave the driveway another shoveling (I'll upload pictures later) and I am pretty glad we only get one major snow a year because today my arms and back really feel the workout.

The temp is just below freezing so it wasn't too bad being outside and the cats kept wanting to go out. We threw Mr.Pink out the back door into a massive snow drift because he was begging to go out so badly – after that he really did not want to be outside anymore. \n Jingles ran out the front door and ran around for a while and we ended up going to look for her because she was out for a long time and it is really easy to track a cat in the snow. \n She had gotten herself kinda trapped because she could not get to the back door due to huge drifts so she was confused (she still does not understand that doors work both ways and will only go in the back door). \n We stayed up late watching TV and doing a puzzle and generally spending time together since I'll be gone next week. I'm actually traveling tomorrow too and with Lars's practice schedule and my school on Thursday last night was the last full night available before I leave.

I still have not given too much thought to packing, given current liquid regulations I'm not sure how I'm going to get contact solution to China. \nMy current solution is to fill a bunch of contact cases with solution unless I can find one tonight with under 3oz in a bottle. I plan on shopping for little things today, granola etc, but I can't bring much since I'm going to fit all 10 days into carry on luggage. \n I'm still not as excited as I hoped I would be, probably because it really will be work, but the weekend we have free in Shanghai should make up for it. \n I'll take a ton of pictures and if the internet is good there I'll post.

That is about it for now, looking at another busy week but it should be fun.

Bev and I this weekend

2007-02-22T21:40:00.000-06:00

Better late then never - this is Bev and I using the old 'hold the camera at arms length' technique and I think it turned out really well. In the background is the trail that was made on an old railroad bed that is nicely paved and runs from the cities all the way up to Duluth and Lars and I ride bikes on it all summer.

2007-02-21T15:26:00.001-06:00

TV Research;

New Adventures of Old Christine is coming back – next episode March 12^th; http://www.cbs.com/primetime/old_christine/

Project at 95%

2007-02-21T09:44:00.001-06:00

I am almost done with the outfit! I did the hem, neck detail, hand sewing on the sleeves, so all I have left is button holes. I'm torn between wanting to get it done and knowing that doing button holes on my machine usually results in some problem or another. The obvious alternative is hand made button holes. Can I just use regular thread for that? Or do I use floss? I'm leaning that way since I only need to do 6 or 8. I was looking for larger buttons so that they are easier to do with gloves on but Jo-Anns is devoid of useful buttons in general – I don't think he would appreciate cutsie hearts or flower buttons. Anyway, I got Lars to try it on and it fits him so it should fit Ambrose (I hope), the chest was tight and the arms were long but since he is about 6 inches taller then Lars and not as build I think it will work out.

After sewing I ate dinner and fell asleep – then I woke up again and saw it was only 10:30 so I watched the Apprentice and it was ok but I think the show is getting old. I still like the premise and sometimes the tasks are really good but mostly it is a formula. I miss Project Runway and I'm not sure they are doing a season this year because the hostess is having a baby. They also seem to have canceled the new adventures of old Christine, I don't see any upcoming episodes. I'll have to do some research on the shows so I know for sure....

Ok, time to get to work, my e-mails are creeping up over 100 again, I must battle them back.

post Vday

2007-02-15T10:41:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a long day. Work was crazy with lots of driving and lots of running around but it was good I was there. I did get a little something for Lars at WalMart and he and his guy friends all went to Macy's together and got all the wives chocolate. Lars got us an assortment of truffles and me a small box of dark chocolate and there is enough to last a month. We did not end up having a movie night, our friend Timmy came over for dinner and then we went to the neighbors for games and ended up staying until midnight. I got about half my homework done but I have more to do at lunch today, I needed my work computer to actually do the graphs and it is a huge pain because yet again, bobble head didn't tell us how to do the graph he wants.

Today will be a very long day and it seems to be going by pretty slowly because I thought it was noon and it is only 10:30. I suppose that means I have a lot accomplished today but sometimes I wonder if the passing of time is constant or not.

I took a look at my stat counter and I am up to 26 or so visitors roughly a day! I'm not sure who everyone is but it is fun to guess based on IP address. Anyone who wants to reveal their identity e-mail me at kate79@gmail.com , the people I can figure out are; G1, G2, HRM, 8k, Mom/Dad, GoneSouth, E-kat (occasionally), Mike80's, Petranella and that is all I can figure out based on location or origination page. I'm happy to have anyone visit J

I am up to 96 e-mails so I need to go battle it down to the 50 range....

2007-02-14T09:46:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentines Day!

I will spend the day running around to 2 different location for Work and hitting WalMart on the way to or from somewhere.

Yesterday I got home and the house was CLEAN! I did notice a few spots she missed but if she misses them again next time I'll point them out, this time she probably had her hands full cleaning overall. Lars was home and said they were very efficient. My biggest complaint (and one should not complain about other people cleaning) is that they made our bed and put the top sheet on upside-down and backwards. She also gave us homework; she threw all the throw rugs into the laundry room so I guess I'll be doing a load of them this weekend so my feet don't get cold in the mornings.

Last night I pulled out the sewing project for Ambrose. I finished the cutting based on the fitting and I set in one sleeve, all that is left is the other sleeve, cuffs, hem, and buttons. If I get creative I may add a decorative stripe to the bottom but it is coming together. I have to do homework today and if I get it done early I'll probably have time to do more before Lars comes home from practice.

Hope everyone is having a good Valentines day

tuesday

2007-02-13T13:19:00.001-06:00

I am oddly bored right now. I've gotten a lot done, now I'm waiting on other people. That is the way of the world. Yesterday was similar, I ended up doing a lot of little thing and then I did a bunch of SCA stuff just because I'm waiting on stuff.

Last night I went direct from work to T&K's and it is really very close by back roads, closer then my house I think. Lars mentioned that if the market goes up a lot in our area we might sell and move north a bit if prices are still reasonable. I like our house but it isn't my dream house. Hanging out on a Monday is very different then a Friday, just a different tone. We got home later then I intended to but we got the house reasonably picked up so the cleaning people can clean. Lars called and said that it looked pretty good, I can't wait to see it, I feel like it is Christmas. Today I will do homework and hopefully start sewing and continue sewing Wed night. Thursday is class and I'm going out after for a SCA fitting and Friday Bevie is visiting so I need to re-tidy and spruce the guest room. Other then the snowmobiles I don't have many plans for the weekend but I'm sure we will fill the time easily. Today I need to go pick up some valentine stuff but I think we will do our traditional stay home and watch a movie while eating sushi plan.

Nothing else very noteworthy going on, time to go nag some engineers to get their stuff done for me. 3 more hours until I see a clean house!

Feeling Chipper Today

2007-02-12T11:12:00.001-06:00

Monday already! I am in a good mood today, I got a bunch done this weekend, we have the cleaning lady coming tomorrow and my friend from High School is visiting on Friday. Lars and this work team had a big weekend so they worked non stop from Friday morning until now, I'm not joking, around the clock. It is times like these that I am glad he works from home because otherwise I would never see him and when I did he would be grumpy. I basically had run of the house all weekend since he was rooted to his desk chair so I did the bathroom and cleaned a bunch. I also played Hero's and it is just so easy to loose a couple hours in that game. I don't realize how long I have played until my mouse hand is numb. The cats enjoy the game, I am a non moving lap and they take full advantage of it. I finished the second mission yesterday and feel quite accomplished. I also got the laundry done, including sheets and towels so all I need to do is fold and put away.

This week I need to focus on sewing, if I dedicate Tuesday or Wednesday to it I should be able to finish and put it away again so the house looks nice for Bev. After that project my queue is roughly; fighting outfit for Josh, new fighting tunic for Lars, Houpe for me, and maybe something late period to wear at Coronation. I have fabric for all of this (and more!) just need to get into the sewing grove. Tonight I'm going to visit T&K since we skipped Friday due to the work thing but we won't stay late because I need to pre clean for the cleaning team and I would like to do my exercises. I got a bunch of nice nesting baskets from WalMart and I am planning on tossing all things that don't belong on that floor into a basket to be transported to the correct floor. The plan is on Mondays to get as much put away as possible and leaving the baskets empty so the cleaning team can fill them with anything they find or need to move. That is the plan anyway.

Ok, back to work. Hope everyones weekend was fun.

Bathroom

2007-02-11T23:34:00.000-06:00

So the bathroom project... I can't find the picture of the bathroom pre -changes but, it is basically this room but white. We choose a nice bright spring green for the room.

Then I chopped up alot of crown molding, we spent alot of time on lots of websites and found this one was best.

We made templates and looked at our directions just about every cut but in the end we got it. We call our collected leftovers opportunities to make small molding shelves
I also invested in a fun air compressor and I continue to believe that I would write better instructions then they do because this one didn't even have directions for some of the parts and it was dead wrong about other things like saying it came with oil and to run it for thirty min. I checked, it did not have oil... good thing I didn't follow that directions. Pictured is my montage to the construction process; Charlie the chop saw, box of future shelves, our templates and directions, and a loud can of air.

So here is the final product. We didn't pick the easiest room in the house but we did pick the smallest.

As a great man said, it looks good to a blind man on a galloping horse. All I can say is it is finished and I am more or less pleased. Many thanks to Jenny who prodded me into action.

Crown

2007-02-10T09:41:00.001-06:00

Crown Molding. Yes. I plan on really doing it this time. I have found an alternative to coping and Jennie is coming over at 12 to help. The bathroom is 100% painted and ready to go.

Silent Night

2007-02-09T13:08:00.001-06:00

Last night while walking to the car from class the song 'silent night' came clear to me. I'm not sure how cold Bethlehem is, but, walking 6-8 blocks in -15 temp the world is absolutely silent. Every house was shut up tight, nobody was out taking a walk, I couldn't even hear many cars and although only 9pm the roads were actually empty. This exact same walk in the spring and summer is full of noise but everything is hibernating now.

Play in Snow!

2007-02-09T09:39:00.000-06:00

Plans are coming together! I successfully reserved two sleds from the workplace and a trailer and a person with a truck to pull the trailer so when Bevie visits we can go play on the lake! Now all I need is an extra helmet or else we will be using ATV helmets... PS. Princess, I don't think we will be at Haire Affair next weekend... Lars also has to work so it would have been tight anyway.

heart healthy

2007-02-08T14:08:00.001-06:00

So healthy update.... I've been pretty good about running on the elliptical 2-3 days a week especially since I can see my shows thanks to Tivo network, I noticed over the past few times I couldn't get my aerobic target heart rate until the end of the workout. I was thinking that I must not be working hard enough but according to Healthy Roads lady my heart is improving! I should have guessed that myself because I am on the same machine, going the same distance ( 1.2 mi), at the same resistance (4), at the same relative speed (50-55 steps per min) and the only changed variable was me. I am taking that as good news, all that fruit and whole grains and general exercise is doing some good. I'll have to sit down this weekend and recalculate my target rates and update the post-it on my machine. She also suggested upping the resistance so I'll probably do that too.

Unhealthy update is my lunches this week; Today was school lunch and it was some sort of noodles and meat served with questionable green beans and pieces of butter/garlic soaked toast (tasty but fatty). Yesterday is my off site day so I ate my lean pocket, can't really do any good lunch there because there isn't fridge space for my normal chicken and greens. Tuesday was the conference so we ate some fancy chicken thing with stuffing and sauce and Monday I went home for lunch to meet the cleaning lady and had a sandwich and chips. So far I have spent $0 on lunch but it hasn't really been good for me. Tomorrow I'll do the salad thing if my chicken from last week is still good, otherwise I might call the week a wash and just buy lunch at work.

2007-02-08T10:19:00.001-06:00

Today I feel like posting early as this is one of those days that not too much gets done. Last night I had to do homework, the power was on, and when I opened the assignment it was full of notation I didn't understand. I understood about half but that really doesn't cut it with math. So I read the sections he put on the syllabus and didn't find the answers, then I read the stuff he said to skip – still no answers, then I tried to find a website that explained the notation and I didn't find one. I finally called my Math teacher friend and opened a see-n-share program so she could see my computer and showed her the worksheet. As soon as she identified what each thing meant I was fine and the work was easy. I honestly am good at algebra and following formulas but it would have been nice if the moron thought to tell us what each thing meant. At least the homework is done but I still need IT to install Minitab on my computer because I don't have admin rights and teacher says we need a laptop for class....

After homework and dinner and some TV I started painting. I did a whole bunch of stupid things like whacking the roller into thing or making drips that I think I was just tired but I got all but the toilet wall done. Looking this morning I see a few spots that need touching up but all in all it looks good. It was 11pm when faced with how to paint behind the toilet so I decided to wait on it. I have a plan now, I am going to bag the toilet, paint as much as I can with my little roller, then use a brush, then use my little flat edger. I figure that not too many people will be looking behind the toilet and as long as it is the right color I should be ok. Tonight after class I'll try and knock out the last wall and do touch ups so this weekend it will be dry for the crown molding. Poor Lars, he keeps thinking I'm done and putting the shower curtain back up and then I hear him and tell him I'm not done and don't get the room all steamy so he goes to shower in the downstairs slightly scary bathroom. It really isn't as scary as it could be but it does have an odd built in seat and the shower head is a hand sprayer that is on a wall mount that is too short to stand under. I took it off the mount and used it standing up, Lars has decided that sitting is just easier. To all the people who have showered in this bathroom, I'm sorry, I've cleaned it tons for times but never looked at the logistics of it. I also noticed when I took my first shower in there the other day that the hot cold knob is wrong, it is opposite, don't know how that happened but I'm sorry about that too! The downstairs shower is on the list of things I want to upgrade...

Today is an odd work day, things kinda piled up oddly. I have mentoring at 10:30 at the local elementary school where I talk to a 4 ^th grader for an hour and have school lunch. To me she doesn't seem high risk or anything other then the normal 4^th grade girl but she seems to like the hour of time all about her. This afternoon I have my every other week healthy roads apt where for half an hour I talk about nutrition to a woman in California that work 'strongly suggested' people with my health score participate in the program. The health assessment said I am overweight for my height and although I know I could look 5-10 pounds they don't take muscle and dense bones into the equation so therefore, I am overweight and I talk to her ever other week. In the past year I have gotten some good advice, not really diet to loose weight related but I have started eating more fruit and she gives good advice about bike riding etc. Finally, I have class tonight so I need to leave 4pm on the button to be able to get home, put on extra layers of clothing so I can handle my 8 block walk to class and then get down there so I can watch the bozo perform for 3 hours. So, today I have a challenging day to get my stuff done but I got a lot done yesterday and there is always tomorrow...

2007-02-07T14:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a doozie. First, it is super sub zero here, a fact that I don't really like to acknowledge but it has been below 0 for days now. I really do have better things to talk about then the weather but this deep freeze is effecting my decisions about leaving the house so it is worth mentioning. Somehow our power is out at the house is out, I suppose at some point electricity freezes but hopefully it will be on again by the time I get home.

Anyway, the cold drove me to see if anyone wanted to carpool to our yearly seminar my entire group was at yesterday. I got a ride with a good group and they even picked me up at my house since it really is in an easy spot. They were worried about finding the house at 6am in the dark so I told them I would put the Christmas lights on. They said it was VERY easy to spot the only house with lights so the day started well. It snowed yesterday morning so the drive was slow but uneventful. The conference was very similar to the two years I've been before but this year I had a very excellent muffin for breakfast. They took the opportunity to also have a group dinner and so I didn't get home until 8:30 and my brain was overloaded with slides and plans and reviews of the year. I got home to a silent dark house because Lars went to the baronial practice so I did the monthly bills and opened an ING account so we are now grownups with a savings account. I exercised and then intended to paint the bathroom but found that all the brushes I own are in hiding so I really couldn't do much with out them so I got brushes today at lunch and will get it done tonight (by candle light if necessary!)

I also got my text book in the mail.... unfortunately, the mailman thought it would be a good idea to bend the hard cover text until it fit into the mailbox. It looks pretty getto right now, it is usable but ugly. I called in to complain but I'm sure they won't do anything. The claim process requires you to give them the damaged item and I need the book for class so I'm stuck. I'll still see what I can do but I'm glad to have it to do my homework tonight. Last weeks class was annoying because the teacher was a super dweeb. I should not expect high humor or entertainment from someone who does Stats as a profession but I DO expect them to have a lesson plan. This guy had not even looked at the powerpoint that came with the book and disagreed with half of what it said. He was a bumbling idiot for the first half and kept jumping from topic to topic and never really explained anything. Someone finally stopped his rambling and asked what we needed to know about the current topic and how it tied into the next lesson... he got on track somewhere in the last hour and I'll reserve judgment on if he is a waste of air or not until after this class..... I don't think he is worth the 2k I'm paying for the class but it is a prerequisite for all the other classes I need in the future. His one redeeming quality was that he wants to make sure we all really know what we are doing and won't move on until he feels we are good, he didn't care how far we get in the course so that makes me feel a little better that he won't loose us all in his rambling.

The cold outside is invading the office I'm in so I think I'll go walk around a bit and warm up. Hopefully everyone else is doing well and keeping un frozen.

weekend review

2007-02-05T14:19:00.001-06:00

Weekend review! I write this probably so when I need to remember what I did xyz weekend I can look back on my blog. Most of this is old news as half the readers were there and the other 45% I called... So for future refrence and Janis at Gone South and 8K my weekend review;

Friday was fun, T&K had their first house cleaning with the lady a work friend recommended to me and the house looked great. Today I had my meeting with her to go over stuff and she seems like a cool person, totally trustworthy and very efficient. Friday night Lars was 'on duty' meaning he really didn't help get ready for the event and that put me in a sorta bad mood especially since he sprung the fact that we were staying for the feast so I had to go find dishes too. Anyway, he did end up helping and we really didn't need to pack too much since it was only a day event.

Saturday we woke up way too early for a weekend and drove to the event 3 hours away. The directions stopped on Butts ave and we drove up and down the street looking for the site and were more or less lost for 20 min. There were no signs and you had to drive through an apparently abandoned fairground to get to the site. Once we were there it was a fun day, I just sat and talked and held friends babies and even the feast turned out ok. One of the guys found an outback for us to order from and that sounded like a great idea since the feast was sold out BUT the place way 50 miles away so in a day when we drove 200 miles to the event, I went an extra 100 to get dinner. I volunteered to go because one of the guys was supposed to get an award and though I didn't want to miss it, he is usually the guy who will run and get whatever you need so I had to say I was doing it so he would be there. The discussion the guys wanted to stay for worked out well, I think people learned some stuff even. The drive home was easy, mostly because I fell asleep, and we were in our own bed by 1am (so Lars was really speeding because that is a half hour earlier then we should have been there plus we dropped Josh off)

Sunday was supposed to be crown molding day. Jenny did come over to help and we did buy the molding and we were all set to go but we tried to cope and we suck at it. We decided to practice this week and try again next weekend. While cleaning the walls (we are going to paint too) we noticed the terrible job the previous owners did with calking the tub. It has been bad for a while but close inspection showed that it is getting close to failure so we gouged it out. I love that Lars never questions us when we bring butter knives, razer blades, box cutters and paint scrapers into the bathroom. Jenny had to leave but I finished scraping out the gobs and gobs of gunk and patched the parts that were really bad. Tonight I'll do the nice neat bead that goes around the top, I even got the tool to do it... the last people look like they used just the calk gun and hoped for the best. I know we said we were going to only do the bathroom if we messed up the down down stairs room but when we started looking at the ceiling down there it was too complicated because parts slope etc. I can feel plenty of muscles I over used yesterday because balancing on the edge of the tub and scraping is like Pilates for real life.

This week will be busy, tomorrow I have an all day conference that starts at 7am and goes through dinner. Wednesday I have to get homework done and hopefully get the normal stuff done, Thursday class and normal Friday. Like I said in the beginning, today I met with a cleaning lady, I just can't keep dedicating all my time to cleaning and never getting anywhere anyway. I'll still have to clean and do laundry etc but I won't have to worry about the bathrooms or the floors or dusting and that will free up time. This is something I have wanted for a long time and I'm glad we can do it finally. Hopefully everyone else had good weekends too!

2007-02-01T14:49:00.001-06:00

Thursday... almost the weekend. Wednesday night was on the nonproductive side but I did make the phone calls I wanted to and watched the TV shows we have been saving up. I made plans today to do crown molding in our down down stairs room on Sunday with a friend. With her coming there is 99% more of a chance I'll actually get going on it. I don't particularly want crown molding down there but I need to practice somewhere and paint grade primed crown molding is on sale at Menards. I also got an offer to borrow an air compressor and finish nail gun from a coworker so that will definitely help the process. I choose the down down stairs room because it is square and if I mess up too badly I'll just try and do the bathroom instead and reuse the wood. I suppose if I mess up the bathroom I'll move to a closet or something but I'll keep practicing until I'm good enough to do the real project – crown molding around the built in bookshelves from last year.

I am looking forward to the event this weekend. I'll get to see a friends new baby AND my Bear is doing bear like things (for the non SCA/Northshield readers, the order of the bear is given once per reign to a person who has had a profound effect on the kingdoms personality). I choose G because she does and inspires others to do real projects that improve the landscape for everyone.

Today was fairly productive, I have nailed down my trip. Since my mom keeps track of the time zone I'm in, here is the plan;

CO DATE CITY-AIRPORT TIME FLIGHT NBR/CLASS ST SERV/AMNT

-- ---- ------------ ---- ---------------- -- ---------

A SA 03MAR LV MINNEAPOLS/STPAUL 925A NORTHWEST 217F OK BREAKFAST

AR PORTLAND ORE 1104A 0STOP 753

A SA 03MAR LV PORTLAND ORE 1225P NORTHWEST 5C OK DINNER

04MAR AR TOKYO-NARITA APT 405P 0STOP 332

A SU 04MAR LV TOKYO-NARITA APT 540P NORTHWEST 29C OK DINNER

AR BUSAN 815P 0STOP 757

A TU 06MAR LV BUSAN 840A KOREAN AIR 875Y OK SNACK

AR PU DONG ARPT/SHA 930A 0STOP AB6

A TH 08MAR LV PU DONG ARPT/SHA 825A CHINA EASTERN 5419Y OK SNACK

AR CHONGQING 1125A 0STOP 320

A FR 09MAR LV CHONGQING 305P CHINA EASTERN 5422Y OK SNACK

AR PU DONG ARPT/SHA 505P 0STOP 320

A TU 13MAR LV PU DONG ARPT/SHA 1000A NORTHWEST 26C OK DINNER

AR TOKYO-NARITA APT 155P 0STOP 744

A TU 13MAR LV TOKYO-NARITA APT 325P NORTHWEST 20C OK DINNER

AR MINNEAPOLS/STPAUL 1215P 0STOP 744

With all these flights, I think I really need to just carry on everything so I need to get a good large carryon. 10 days with my boss and an engineer, this may be too fun to handle.

Another winner

2007-01-31T16:03:00.001-06:00

Wow, today was quite a day. I'm glad I can multitask because sometimes there were three people standing around me rapid firing questions on different projects all at the same time. It could have been worse I suppose, they could have each been speaking a different language... I did get alot done and atleast the most major of the problems put to bed.

yesterday I did clear the table and surrounding area but I did not sew. I have a clear plan for today and hopefully I don't get too distracted. Tomorrow night is my first Stats class and I don't have the book so I need to get there early to buy one. The teacher didn't have his book selected early enough to get one online... Hopefully this class is interesting, I don't have high hopes but not expecting much I might be pleasantly surprised. For those of you who are counting, this is my 4th masters class, it is the last of the initial 4 that are prerequisites for every other course. I think I have 12 class left so at this rate 4 years to go.

Time to get going, hope everyone else had a more easy going stress free day then I did.

1/30/07

2007-01-30T13:32:00.001-06:00

I am starting to think the Mondays are just too busy at work to actually post anything. Yesterday was (obviously) no exception, I didn't even read any of my daily blogs because between two long meetings and lots of general activity I was an hour late leaving.

The weekend in review is very similar to many other weekends at home. I recall how much I wanted weekends at home when all we did was travel but at some point the balance tips. I was busy though, I challenged myself to clean and I got the living room spotless and the computer room pretty clean and roomba vacuumed both thoroughly. I did not get the dining room table clear so there is zero progress on the sewing but I did make headway. I got distracted by two things, my Tivo dilemma and Hero's of Might and Magic (computer game).

Tivo problem; Tivo is upstairs, elliptical is downstairs, I want to watch shows I Tivo while running. Previous solution was to make DVD's of the shows and play them downstairs. Of the 6 or so times I've tried this, it only worked kinda once. The DVD player is really bad, it won't play normal movies either and it actually destroyed 2 writeable DVDs. My options as I saw them were; 1. buy a tivo for downstairs, found out that I would need tivo subscription too so that option would add up to hundreds of dollars over time. 2. buy a better dvd player, this could be anything from 50-150 and still might not work, plus, it might be the tv that doesn't work well with DVD players and I can't really test that without another player. #3. network my upstairs Tivo to my computer and download the shows and watch them on my computer monitor. I read about this a couple months ago and they came out with a wireless network connecter for $50 so that was the option I tried. Needless to say, it isn't exactly an easy process and TV+Tivo+Cable box is a delicate eco system that I definitely disturbed and all in all it took about a day to get everything in working order. I successfully watched my first show downstairs while running yesterday and as a bonus, my computer screen is bigger then the TV I was using.

So that basically dominated my weekend. The computer game is one of those tactics/planning games that sucks hours away and you don't even know it. Today I need to get the table clear and start sewing before I go near the game or I'll loose another evening to it.

This coming weekend is an event, we are day tripping in because Lars is working Friday night. I won rodeo tickets for this sat too and have to find someone to give them away to but I think I have a taker. Hopefully tomorrow there will be a sewing update...

Date night Thursday (kinda)

2007-01-26T09:07:00.001-06:00

Finally, FINALLY the Korea/China trip is just about planned. By some virtue I can not identify, I was elected trip coordinator for this so yesterday I put pen to paper (ok, keyboard to excel) and planned out the route. We will be leaving the US on Sat Mar 3 and returning Tuesday March 13 so I will be missing Haire Affair and one Masters class but that isn't too bad. First stop is Korea, then Shanghai, then Chongqing, then back to Shanghai and then back home. Since we cover two weekends, the second weekend we are going to sight-see, why go alllll the way there to do nothing but work and come back and since we need to be there that Monday for one last supplier visit we have the weekend to see the sights. This won't be a vacation by any stretch of the imagination; we are going nonstop for most of this, but it will be a good stamp in the passport.

Last night I did not get to clean much, I got home and our friend Timmy called and wanted to do dinner and a movie. I said we had to grocery shop too so all three of us ate at Famous Dave's, then shopped, then went to the 9:10 showing of the Good Sheppard. The food was good, the grocery store was all but abandoned, and the movie was good but on the confusing side. I think it is one of those movies that you just have to see twice, not that there are surprises since I basically knew the history of CIA but there are just a ton of people to keep track of and everyone is crossing and double crossing each other. Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors and he plays a pretty stoic role in this but he plays a good character and I was interested the entire time even though it didn't end until nearly 12. Finding a movie we all wanted was difficult because a lot of good ones come out today but I would recommend it overall. Got home, unpacked groceries, and then straight to bed - cleaning is now pushed off until Sat because we are going to see T&K tonight and we haven't been up to see them in 3 weeks.

reason for the quiet

2007-01-25T13:24:00.001-06:00

I've been delinquent at blogging. Basically we had a huge problem that didn't work out too well that I don't really want to go into however it has been a dominant thing over the past week. Because I don't really want to talk about it, I don't really have much else to say...

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon cleaning and only made a dent in the mess. We havn't done a good housecleaning since before we went to Mexico so I started yesterday. I got the bedroom and bathroom clean and folded all the laundry. All the Christmas stuff is down and the boxes are away. Today I hope to get the diningroom and livingroom clean so over the weekend I can sew.

Today I did one exciting thing, I finally found the sneaker/shoes that I have been wanting;

I already have them in brown but black has been pretty hard to find. They are very comfortable and look professional enough that I can wear them to work. They are one of those shoes that look good with pants and skirts and you can wear with or without socks. If they weren't $50 a pair I would own every color.

Over the next few weeks we hope to get over this problem, there really isn't any fixing that can be done but we do have options on how to move forward. I'm sure as we get working on options and there is more distance between me and the problem I'll be more chipper and more apt to blog stuff.

Blue Monday

2007-01-22T15:03:00.000-06:00

Today is apparently the most depressing day of the year . I don't know if it is any better or worse then other days but that is what scientists say.

This weekend was extended for me a bit, I came down with something on Thursday night and I took Friday off and all weekend I either slept or dozed. Today I'm feeling somewhat better and hopefully will be back to normal soon. Hopefully work didn't think that I needed a vacation from my vacation since I only worked 1 day in the office last week. I am glad I kept up with E-mail while gone because I'm actually in pretty good shape.

Since I didn't really move much this weekend, very little got done around the house. Shamefully, the Christmas tree is still up and so is the Christmas village but most of the other Christmas stuff is down. I have a sewing project or two I need to get moving on but that would mean finding my table under the derbies of vacation and Christmas and mail etc etc etc. I know once I get into it the projects will fly but I haven't had much of a sewing mood.

Plans for this week are Spartan. I still have 2 weeks off before classes start so I need to make the best of my time. I think we might be going to fight practice on Tuesday but we don't have any SCA events this month.

That is about it, not really an exciting update but it was more or less to say I'm still alive J

Invitation to view Kate's album - Cancun

2007-01-20T14:29:00.001-06:00

Cancun

Dec 28, 2006
by Kate

View Album

Message from Kate:

Our trip to Cancun

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Mexico

2007-01-18T13:36:00.001-06:00

So here I am, back at work, back on a schedule. In my opinion, the vacation was just the right amount of time. Any shorter would have felt rushed, any longer and I would have gotten bored. I'm sure I could get used to the life of leisure, just reading and playing games with friends but with work hanging over all our heads I was glad to get back.

The trip in review;

The Drama started when I realized I did not have a passport. I technically have one, but it was in the hands of the Chinese embassy because I'm getting a visa for China in March. I should have had it back but I didn't and I frantically called to try and get it back. Luckily the mandatory passport rule does not come into effect until the 28 ^th so I just made it. Instead of a passport, I needed to show I was a citizen with my birth certificate, license, voters registration card, and marriage license. Luckily I had an old passport in my old name that helped a lot but Mom had held onto my birth certificates so I had to have her express mail it. Drama #2 was the apparent inability of the post office to get the package to my house over night so we had to mail it to G2, apparently her house is a whole day closer while only being 20 min south of me. Drama#3 was that I could not find my marriage license, I know I've seen it recently but I could not put my hands on it. I have copies though and hoped for the best... Crisis was averted, I went to G2 the night before we left and got the paperwork and visited for a while and with the documentation I could gather I got out of the US, into Mexico and back to the US with basically no problems. I still need to keep an eye out for my marriage license but the drama of travel was much more minor then it could have been. Ironically, today I got my real passport with a China Visa so next time, I'll leave more of a buffer for traveling.

The plane ride there was completely uneventful except for the fact that they don't even serve trail mix anymore so I was starving by the time we landed at 2:30. We met the other two couples and got to the resort easily and the picture I posted was our view from the balcony. We spent most of the time there talking and relaxing in or by the pool. I burn like crazy so I spent most of my time in the shade but it was still pretty and warm. It got a bit chilly at night when the wind picked up but it was still cool eating outside by the ocean, my sweater just got more of a workout then I thought it would. Sunday K&H and Lars and I went on a bus trip to a Mayan attraction, it is a Mayan village and theme park, there was a bunch of animals and a 5 mile long underground river that you snorkel through. I have a bit of a fear of getting my head underwater but I got used to it by the end and there were lots of pretty fish to see. I'm glad the park was not that crowded because we got to take our time doing everything. We also visited a butterfly enclosure, it was about 3 stories tall and full of trees and flowers and had a waterfall and tons of butterflies. It is pretty hard to take pictures of them but I did try. The end of the day there was a really cool show, it went through a bunch of Mayan history pre and post Spanish and it was a cool spectacle. By the time we got back we were beat but we played a game and went to bed. Lars stayed up super late every night soaking up all possible game time but I just could not keep my eyes open past about midnight. Every morning though I was up at 7 all by myself so I had quiet relaxation on the balcony with my book and a coffee and my breakfast, not really social but very relaxing watching the waves and the pelican diving.

Tuesday Lars and the guys went scuba diving and we ladies were left. H and I went to the lobby to check e-mail and to webcam the beach back to work. We had a cappuccino on the beach and then lunch and talked tons of girl talk and we noticed a little sunfish (being sailed very badly) at the beach near us. H said she had never sailed and really wanted to so we decided to go get L and see what the boat cost. Amazingly enough it was included in the resort, absolutely NOTHING else in the whole country was free so this was a nice surprise. The boat was a sunfish that was at least 15 years old and didn't have any of the modern connivances I'm used to but since there was next to no wind and we had three people the age of the boat didn't really matter since we weren't going to be winning any races. I'm glad my sailing skills came back to me quick since neither one of them had a clue but we spent a pleasant hour and a half sailing around. We even managed to avoid the jet ski group, the parasailing boats, and get back to the little bit of beach we started from and nobody fell off the boat or lost any hats or sunglasses. After the boat we made spa appointments for salt scrubs and I'm not sure it was quite worth the price but my skin does feel soft. That night we ate dinner and then walked around the market and rounded out the night with another game.

Wednesday was the last day and we got up, packed up, and took a group picture with the timer, I'll post all pictures soon, I need to go through and crop/edit some. We got to the airport in tons of time and walked through security. Mexican airport security is not all that strict, we didn't even have to take our shoes off. We had our final group lunch and then we all went to our separate gates. By 7:30 pm Lars and I were home petting cats and opening the mail. This time the cats didn't destroy anything but they did catch a mouse, I have no clue how a mouse got in the house but I'm sure it provided entertainment for the 2 mousers and the 1 apprentice hunter cat in the house.

I overall enjoyed the trip but here are a few rather strange things about Mexico;

1. None (I mean zero) toilet seats match the toilet they are attached to. Every time I sat down it would shift or slide.

2. Everyone wants a tip always, probably a resort thing, but next time I'm bringing $50 in singles.

3. It takes at least 45 min to get food for 6 served, of the 10 or so meals we ate there we got a bug in the veggies once, a completely different steak then ordered 3 times, cold food for someone every time, ordering the same soup two day in a row does not mean the soup will taste the same, and completely random side dishes apparently at the chiefs whim.

4. Not as many people as we hoped spoke English but now I can speak much better Spanish then I thought

5. Everyone is selling something, sometimes it is easier to walk in the island in the highway then walk past the street vendors, they will even yell across the street at you

6. All equipment is old, I saw tons of ancient cars, lawnmowers and construction stuff and it all looks 15 years old. They also have a way of repurposing things, the stones by the pool were washed daily using a floor waxer and a hose... very weird (and loud)

That's about it for the trip, I had fun and I think everyone else did too and we have tentative plans for another trip with the same group for sometime next year so we will see.

We are back

2007-01-17T20:21:00.001-06:00

It was a good trip, we are now back in this country.

More tomorrow, time to go drink water out of the tap and enjoy not having to tip anyone for the next 24 hours

Cancun

2007-01-15T17:54:00.000-06:00

Internet is not what was advertised on their website so I'm just popping in quickly to post a picture.

I'm in the airport

2007-01-12T10:08:00.001-06:00

I can see the plane

We can't think of anything we forgot

We got thousands of Pesos at the exchange booth and either the lady was very dumb because she didn't give us our change ($4 American) or, she was smart and ripping us off. Either way we got our money.

In 4 hours we will be 80 degrees warmer

PS. it is delurking week

2007-01-11T14:43:00.001-06:00

I tried this last year and was fairly disappointed so comment or e-mail me if you read this just so I can match names to IP addresses.

Cya!

a 'real' post

2007-01-11T14:42:00.001-06:00

Wow, I missed a day, and the post the day before was supposed to have a part two that had something in the way of substance. In some ways I have had incredibly busy days however they are full of stuff I can't really write about or that is totally uninteresting. Right now I am going full swing into vacation mode. I did very well focusing on work until now (2ish of course) but now I'm mentally checking out. I still have some work to check on tomorrow, might get it done in the airport, but I am taking my laptop so I'll check in on work. I know I should just take a vacation but it is so much easier to check in once a day then to come back to a big mess.

Yesterday I started gathering things, hat, sun block, summer stuff, I pulled out a Chinese parasol from pennsic and I'm thinking of bringing it along since I'm so prone to burning but then again I don't want to look like a moron. I'll see if I have space. I also need to get around to taking down the Christmas tree but that might not get done until I get back. I need to get some brain candy books to bring so I hope the thrift store is open late enough today to get a few books. I need to locate summer clothing etc so I'll have a busy night tonight. I am very glad we went for the later tickets, it would not be fun to take off at 6am because we would have to be at the airport at 4:30 so that means leaving the house at 3:45 so we can get there and park and at that point we would have either had to stay awake or go to sleep at 6pm and neither would be a fun way to start a vacation. Our flight takes off at 10 something so we need to leave the house a bit after 7 to be on the safe side.

There will be one thing I miss, our Amaryllis flower turned out to be a double bulb so we have two huge stalks and each has four flower and they are just starting to bloom so we will miss most of it. I'll take a picture and post just so you can see how huge this thing is.

That is basically it for the week – I've just been doing the normal eat, sleep, work, exercise, clean routine.

sun?

2007-01-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

There was this odd and sudden glare on my screen. I turn to the huge windows behind me and the sun is actually out!!! It lasted about 30 seconds before someone closed the blinds but it is nice to know the sun still exists.

weekend review

2007-01-08T15:54:00.001-06:00

Wow, today flew by, I had two major meetings and one minor one but basically all day was meetings. The last one even included an irate supplier but we got it solved in the end.

This weekend I went to an event and it was a nice small affair. I like when everything is in the same room, you don't feel like you miss anything. I also met two people who love the TV show Scrubs as much as we do and we are planning a Scrubs marathon for later this month. We are going to have food inspired by the show too, it should be very fun. Lars missed me, he even did dishes, and he was just finishing some work when I got home at 10:30 but by the time he was done I was totally asleep on the couch. I think he sat with me for a while and we watched something but I was sleeping. Sunday was a lazy day. I got the laundry done and set Roomba to clean and I played computer games and read my new book Wicked. Wicked is a little odd but good so far.

The weekend went by too fast, I suppose I'm a little spoiled after so many long weekends in a row. I'm making sure I get everything possible done before Cancun at work so I don't come back to a big mess but I'm sure I'll check my mail and do little things while I'm there as long as there is internet and I'm pretty sure there is. I didn't get as much cleaning done as I wanted but I got a bunch of stuff organized and did some of the little things on the to do list like mailing receipts to people who didn't like their Christmas gift. Today (or this week at least) I need to de Christmas the house and I would like to keep up the workouts since I got back in the swing of things last week. I got the name of a reliable cleaning lady so I need to give her a call and then it is prep for the trip time. Hopefully I can stick to the plan and not just go home and fall asleep J

4 days to cancun.

Roomba

2007-01-05T17:55:00.000-06:00

So far the most exciting thing I've done this week is loose the roomba on the house. Roomba fits under most of the furniture and is pretty good about getting all over a room. I have roomba proofed the living room, bed room, computer room and guest room. The Kitchen was roomba proof for a while but things are back on the floor. The house is much more tidy and roomba has only had a few incidents; 1. he got stuck under the dishwasher, he fits just enough to get stuck. 2. he fell down the stairs – the cliff sensor does not work so well on carpeted stairs. 3. he really does not like bathroom rugs. I know he doesn't have that smart a sensor but roomba seems to know when I open a door. He was on the far side of the living room one min and I went to the bathroom and he was suddenly bumping the door open and in the bathroom. The cats like to follow it around and watch it, any time it scoots at them they move but I always know where it is because it has atleast 2 cats following at all times.

Other then that, nothing big this week. I still have a cold, I'm going to an event this weekend, and it is now 9 days to Cancun.

weekend is almost here

2007-01-05T14:50:00.001-06:00

I think my work has a worm hole or a time warp or something. Nomatter how late I think it is or how early I think it is in the afternoon I look at the clock and it is around 2pm. I have been very productive this afternoon and I was sure it was quarter to four and nope, it is 2:15. I still have Friday stuff to do before I leave but I'm taking a blog break to say more or less nothing.

Cold status is lowered to 5-10 tissues

List of things to do this afternoon is growing, we (mostly I) took responsibility for the neighbors dogs for the weekend, I have thrones to transport, bag to pack for the weekend.... I worked out Tuesday and Wednesday so it would be great to get a run in but I don't think that will happen before we go to T&Ks for our weekly visit. Yesterday afternoon I was very lazy, I finished my Stephen King book Leslie's Story, did the monthly bills, talked to a few people on the phone and spent the rest of the evening watching TV. 8K has been doing a reading challenge, 50 books a year, I think I'll give it a go just to see how many I actually read in a year. I'm not sure if there are rules as to what counts as a book (do text books count?) and if there is supposed to be a spread of different genres but I usually read what is handy so maybe this will encourage me to read better books so I'm not embarrassed by 50 romance novels.

... I'm bet my Mom reads 200 a year and I think I read at least 50 but I'll keep track this year just to see. Speaking of Mom, she now blogs, a little, and even if it is just running commentary on what her roomba does and how many martial arts classes she attends I appreciate the information. She remarks in one post that talking to strangers about random details in the grocery store is discouraged but unknown internet people are ok.

So anyone else have good weekend plans? I know I'll be seeing a few of you at the event this weekend, to everyone else, have fun.

PS 7 days to Cancun

downgrade to sniffles

2007-01-04T14:39:00.001-06:00

My cold is going away finally. Last night I woke up at 3am coughing but a cough drop stopped it and I don't think I was up too long. Today I think I'm down to 15-20 tissues so far and I can breath out of half my nose. I have high hopes for the weekend.

I have run into a very ironic situation.... Lars and I have been looking for sunglasses for me for atleast 8 months. We finally found a pair this weekend. They were on the expensive side but we had some instore credit from a return. The ironic part is that I go to work in the dark, I go home in the dark, and I would look silly wearing them at work. I will hopefully give them a workout in Cancun... 8 days to go.

first post of 2007

2007-01-02T14:53:00.001-06:00

Took another blogging break over the weekend. It is way easier to blog from work around lunch time since I spend 90% of my work day in front of the computer compared to weekend time when I am doing other things. The long weekend was nice but I seem to have the cold my parents had. Very runny nose and a cough but today my cough etc is gone, just the nose keeps running.

I read a bunch of blogs with plenty of year reviews and resolutions. I had a good 2006 and expect good things from 2007 and I just started a project in early Dec that will dominate most of 2007 so I'm actually positive I'll be busy.

My Highlights for 2006

Got a 'promotion' to a new commodity at work last Jan

Was Princess then Queen for most of the year and had a good time doing it and by most reports we did a decent job (even if some are backhanded compliments like 'you surprised a lot of people')

Started and mostly completed the patio project

Went to Malaysia (work)

Went to Canada twice (events)

Started my masters degree and completed 3/16 courses

2007 plans include;

Going to China and Korea (work)

Finishing the patio

Making a pavilion

Continuing the masters

Fighting in spring crown

And a bunch of other stuff

My only real resolution is to drink more water, I like to keep the resolution realistic.

Newyears this year was odd, Lars and I and 4 friends ended up more or less a mobile party except the weather was terrible so we were driving around in the snow. The last thing I ate in 2006 was Dino's French fries and the first thing I ate in 2007 was coffee from our brand new coffee maker.

The weekend overall was laid back. We did some shopping, we watched The Devil Wears Prada (good movie), and I blew my nose 10,000 times. I can start the count down to Cancun, only 10 more days. This week I have very few plans, I need to get working on a project or two but school is still out so other then some conference calls my evenings are my own this week.

best worst of the trip

2006-12-29T12:05:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-29T11:50:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-22T12:45:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-21T09:17:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-19T13:13:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-18T10:45:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-17T23:41:00.000-06:00

Birthday flowers from the parents :)

Christmas Lights

2006-12-17T09:02:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-14T09:15:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-13T14:00:00.001-06:00

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

2006-12-12T13:23:00.000-06:00

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 :(

2006-12-11T12:42:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-11T11:24:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-12-07T09:52:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-05T16:02:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-04T14:24:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-03T21:08:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-03T00:07:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

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

2006-12-01T14:01:00.000-06:00

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.

Day 30

2006-11-30T13:35:00.000-06:00

Today has been hectic – lots of things to do at work, both older projects and new emergencies.

I am at the offsite office on a Thursday because of the class yesterday so I went out to lunch with the friend who had the baby that is a girl (but was supposed to be a boy) because she lives close to this site. It was nice to see her and the baby is very cute, I think she is a little bored at home.

One thing I have not mentioned is the quality of the coffee at the offsite is poor. Last week it came out in globs and today it is lukewarm and tastes burned. I don't know why I keep trying but it is cold here so I just want a warm cup. It suddenly went from 55 degrees to 7 over the last 24 hours.

Well, I feel like I should have something momentous to say about the final day of national blog month but really I have to run and do work. If I come up with something I'll post it later but just in case, November has been fun, I will likely continue to post daily even when I don't have much to say because my parents read and it is my way of keeping them in touch with my life in between phone calls. If you are a 'new' person leave me a note or something in comments, I have noticed that my stats are way up.

Later

Second shopping trip of the Christmas season

2006-11-29T14:08:00.000-06:00

Last night was really fun. We went shopping at 9 pm and got a bunch of stuff and only paid* 8 dollars.

Why did we go at 9pm? Well I had an emergency conference call at 8pm (that part was not fun) and we had Kohls bucks to spend this week only and yesterday was the only evening we both had semi free.

$8? We shopped a lot on Black Friday and got a $10 coupon for ever $50 we spent so we got gifts for a bunch of people virtually free

Today I ordered what my sister and her husband wanted from a catalogue so all I have left are some more catalogue/online orders and a trip to JC Penny, the Alpaca Store, and Brookstones so basically a trip to the Mall of America. Darn... I bet we even end up and the good sushi place.... Maybe we will go next weekend, Lars is working all this weekend and we are doing so well shopping together. This weekend I hope to put up the Christmas lights and I have a feeling I will be doing my take home final exam, I'll know more about that after tonights class. I can't believe the semester is almost over, time flys with good classes. Next semester is Stats and I'm not really looking forward to it but it really can't be all that bad.

Time to go to a class that has been canceled 3 times and is finally happening

Goodbye to a friend

2006-11-28T15:46:00.000-06:00

A very good work friend is leaving the company today. She got a great offer and it is the right thing for her to do but it is still sad for me. I don't know why I bother making friends since either I or they leave. She is one of those people who knows a bit about everything and was very wise in general and I'll miss having her around to visit during the day. Oh well, technically she will be back mid December and she is going to stay with me so I'll see her and I'm sure we will keep in touch.

Last night was uneventful, I did my homework that ended up being easier then I thought but I didn't get any sewing done at all. I fell asleep early in the evening but woke up when Lars got home and then I was wide awake until midnight so today I am a little off step. I have a bunch of little meetings all day, nothing that will get me very far and they are spaced out just enough that I can't get into any of my other projects. Tonight I am going back to Kholes to spend the Kholes dollars we got over the weekend and I must get my shipping done for my sister and nephew's birthday etc.

Nothing else fantastic – the silly calendar says that today is Make your Own Head day and Red Planet Day. I have no clue about the former and the latter sounds like an ode to Mars. I don't think either are too interesting, nothing like Party with your Bear.

Monday again

2006-11-27T09:30:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone liked my guest writer, Lars did well and he didn't even complain too much.

Yesterday I did both sleeves for the outfit I'm making for Ambrose, ate dinner, and fell asleep. Sitting in a car for 5 hours is tiring. Today I need to do homework and reading for class and I need to mail a bunch of packages. I also hope to make some more progress on the outfit and maybe cut something new out for me. At some point this week I would like to do the Christmas lights but I think that will probably wait until the weekend but the weather is so warm I want to get it done before it turns arctic. I won't turn the lights on for at least another week but getting them up there is the fun part.

Household item – this weekend I changed all the felt pads on my kitchen table and chairs, they were starting to mark the floor so I pried off the old one and put nice new ones on. I should probably do this more then once a year but I never remember, I'll put it on my calendar for next year.

Only a few more days of National Blog posting month, it has been fun and I promise to keep posting but just maybe not every day on the weekends.

back

2006-11-26T15:50:00.000-06:00

Back from the event, it was a nice girls weekend (plus Josh). I need to read through the hand out binder we got since I didn't get to all the classes I wanted to because many were in the same time slot. After a fantastic dinner at the Great Dane nobody felt like post reveling or going to the club we kinda planned on going to and we all hung out and fell asleep. We got up nice and early and hit the road and I am now home. Lars did the dishes while I was gone (he must have missed me) so I think I'm going to get some sewing done and get ready for the week.

Guest Post

2006-11-25T15:53:00.000-06:00

Hi all, Lars here guest posting for my wife. She is at an event called "Clothier's Seminar" I'm sure you all realize why she's there and I'm not.

I don't have much to say beyond that I miss her and look forward to her return tomorrow. I did get to do a little shopping today which was nice. Its a little rough having to shop for her birthday and xmas at the same time. I think I'm going to skip her birthday this year. (kidding honey....)

Well, that's about all the juice I have in me. I realize it wasn't terribly interesting and I apologize, but you're not getting the 60 seconds it took you to surf here and read this back, ever.

-Lars

Mood: Chipper
Weather: Surprisingly warm for Minnesota.
Gas: $ 2:17
Reading: Gerorge RR Martin's "A Feast for Crows"

Black Friday

2006-11-24T08:43:00.000-06:00

I must admit, I did not make it out at 5am. I took a look at the door busters and there really was not anything that I had to have. Don't get me wrong, I'm still shopping today because there are some fantastic deals all day/weekend but 5am was not happening. I also convinced Lars that he had to come with me, we are compromising and saying we are getting to Kholes at 10 so he has another half hour before he has to wake up that I will use to pack for the weekend. I have my doubts about us all fitting in the car we think we are all driving in so I'm going to drive the suv to the meeting point and have it be ready. Maybe we will all still fit, that would be very nice since the suv does not get great mileage.

On my shopping list there are very few question marks so provided I can find everything I want I'll be able to be inspired for my question marks and have a stress free couple of weeks.

In birdfeeder news (I'm sure you were all wondering) I have attracted two cardinals and a bunch of the tiny brown birds. I'm still don't have constant visitation but that may be because it is still 65 degrees outside or because I'm using leftover birdseed from my wedding. Right now the kitten is sitting on the deck staring very intently at the birds that she has no chance at all of getting but she does like watching them. Occasionally she makes a little jump into the air like she was just about to get one but since they are 30 feet up I doubt she will make it.

Ok, off to pack then shop - Giulia, please call with departure time.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T09:58:00.000-06:00

Short post today to wish everyone a good day off. We are gong to go join friends about 1ish for a PJ themed Thanksgiving and I'm making bread and a veggie. Hope everyone has a safe fun day

Goals of the Holiday Season

2006-11-22T09:43:00.000-06:00

1. Avoid ever seeing a jewelry commercial, especially K Jewelry. I hate them so much! I like jewelry and I wouldn't mind more but I really really hate the sappy commercials. I believe with careful use of Tivo I should be able to avoid them completely

Write and mail Christmas Cards – I didn't make it last year but maybe this year

Get shopping done early, I'll have a good start on black Friday but I would love to be done by Dec 11 so everything can be mailed

Put up Christmas lights and inside decorations. I end up slacking on one or the other but I'm looking at a gorilla ladder on craigs list so putting up the lights might be easier this year

Avoid stress – If I get stuff done early I should be fine

Work out atleast 2 times a week, this should help with the stress and the looking decent in a bathing suit in Jan (in Cancun!)

Send a note to anyone else in the neighborhood that puts up decorations, we were the only ones last year

I am sure I'll have more but this is the time I have. I am hoping that we all get to go home early today so I need to get work done. I have a feeling not many people are working today because I only have 3 e-mails so far today and I usually have well over twenty by now.

Tuesday

2006-11-21T17:33:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a roller coaster of tiredness. I woke up very awake, I was practically asleep during the day. I made a deal with myself that I would nap after I made a few calls at home and by the time I was done with the calls I was totally awake again. I made dinner and we ate and I fell asleep about 10:30 trying to watch tv. This morning I was up 20 min before my alarm, hopefully it is a more normal day today.

In our effort to get stuff fixed in the house, today the plumber is coming. He is going to (hopefully) fix our very leaky faucet in the upstairs bathroom. For the past 2 years we have had a problem turning it off so it does not drip but over the past two weeks it is much worse so we are calling in a professional. Since he will be there anyway, we got new bathtub fixtures that match our new sink fixtures so he will be able to change that for us. After this is done, the major repairs are mostly complete. I still want to change a bunch of light fixtures but that is a project I can handle myself.

Next big thing on the agenda is make a pavilion! Step one is to decided between a spoked round or a wedge. We want a small tent that will fit a double airmattress and some stuff and all poles will fit inside our small SUV. Our big pavilion is great for pennsic but it is too big to fit in the car and is too big for most other events. Step two will be to order the canvas with G2 (who will need to figure out what she wants too first) and anyone else ordering so we can share shipping and maybe get a volume discount. Step three will be to actually cut and sew. Step four will be poles. Step five will be decoration, who knows if this will happen sooner or in 10 years but I've always wanted to paint a pavilion and hopefully this will be a good size.

This weekend is a cool event that I get to wear my awesome coronation garb to. I need to fix the underdress in the next few dayst (add lacing) but that should be too big a deal and I'm excited to wear it again since I'm sure at a costume symposium it will be very well received.

Ok, work time....

Happy Monday

2006-11-20T10:35:00.000-06:00

Weekend review.... I got a ton of little things done, so menial and trivial that it would be more dull then my average post to list them all but it is very satisfying to cross stuff off the list. I didn't actually get to everything but I have all week. Class is canceled this Wed for the holiday so I'm going to sit and do homework and I should still have time to so other things too. Yesterday I picked up a supplier from Malaysia and took them to their hotel and then out to dinner. It was a fun meal and we enjoyed ourselves. Today I'm hosting them at work and tonight I hand off to a coworker who has them for the next 3 days.

Friday I was declared a perfect candidate for Lasik, my eyes are a very good shape and I have good corneas with no weak or thin spots. I need to look at the calendar and make the appointment but I am thinking after Cancun in Jan. I might actually end up doing it in Feb since I will need to take a day off I don't want to do that too close to a vacation, just looks bad. Late Feb I am planning on going to Korea and China with a work group, I am filling out paperwork for it now.

It is very nice to have a short week ahead of me. Work through Wednesday, Thanksgiving at T&K's on Thursday, Black Friday 5am shopping then a nap then travel to Costumers event. Saturday nice event all day and maybe a club that night and Sunday home. Thanksgiving this year we are doing a PJ theme, I think I'll check out Wal-Mart for some fun thanksgiving themed stuff. I miss the classic formal meal with my family but since it can't be recreated here we might as well have fun with the change. Any cool Thanksgiving plans with you all?

Next week a bunch of coworkers will be out and the holiday season begins...