Winter sucks

This is what much of the Northeast looked like on Friday. The drive home from work was brutal! Coming home from work, my usual 3.5 mile, 8 minute commute took a freakin' HOUR! Becky was not happy! The snow was beautiful, though.


Miss Babs was tuckered out from a long day of watching the snow fall.


We were going to get a Christmas tree over the weekend but never did. We're both taking this Friday off from work so plan to get it then. Saturday was spent trying to get Red Sox tickets. What a joke that was. Took over 6 hours to get through and the best seats we could get were out in right field. We'll be staring at Trot Nixon all night. Joy. }:-{ Oh well, at least we got tickets, right? Yesterday we did a little Christmas shopping and some belated birthday shopping for me. Got a new cell phone. Now I'm just waiting for everything to finish switching over so I can actually use it. We've had Verizon for years but since The Man has Nextel through work I went with Sprint. And Sprint's taking their sweet ass time moving everything over. I want to download ringtones! NOW!

Pictures!

Babsie butt!


Buster head!


Cow!


More to come!

Good night!

This begs the question...

"Should 'anal retentive' be hyphenated?"

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

Am I really that bad?

Well, I am grumpy that The Man went out for spur of the moment drinks with his friends after poker was finished. And here I sit. They did invite me but it felt like an afterthought.

Maybe it is right on.

Oh well. I am who I am.

Gobble Gobble

Going to try to get into The Friday Five habit:

1. On what day do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

The fourth Thursday of November.

2. How do you traditionally celebrate this food filled holiday?

Spending the day with either my family or my boyfriend’s family eating the traditional foods – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, corn, apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie; playing board games; watching football; reminiscing about Thanksgivings past. Zee, do you remember the pie fight in the mid to late 70’s? My memory of it was sketchy so Mom refreshed my memory – she started it!!

3. How do you like your stuffing cooked (in the bird, separately in a dish, store bought, etc.)?

My mother makes the best sausage stuffing in the world. She stuffs the bird just before she puts it into the oven. That’s the way I like it. :-)

4. What is your favorite dessert to eat on Thanksgiving and who makes it?

Mmmmm… my mother’s pumpkin pie. It’s also traditionally our Thanksgiving morning breakfast appetizer.

5. Can you name five things you are thankful for?

My family
The Man and his family (especially his parents)
Our cats (and the fact that Babs is still with us and back to her old crazy self)
Our home (in spite of our noisy, a-hole neighbors)
Employment

Belated Thanksgiving Greetings! Hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday. We spent the day at The Man’s grandmother’s house. Had to drive through a little snow and ice to get there, but fortunately that was for only the last 10-15 miles of the trip. And thankfully I had snow tires put on the car last Saturday. Once we got to his grandmother’s house the weather cleared out within an hour, and we had decent travel for the ride home. The gathering at his grandmother’s was unusually small. The Man’s mother is one of 15 children, so typically the place is a zoo on holidays, but there were only about 20 people there yesterday, including The Man’s parents. It was nice. Neither of us needed to take any Advil by the time we left. Spent the rest of the evening trying to watch TV (namely the Dallas/Denver game and then A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving) and hating my neighbors more than usual. Their music was so loud (“How loud was it?!”), if we knew how to speak Spanish, we could’ve easily sung along with each song. The walls and floor were vibrating. It was ridiculous. The Man, in an effort to calm me, reminded me that soon, every time they play their music loudly, they’re going to get slapped with a fine. I emailed with our new butt-kicking condo manager last week about noise pollution in our building and she’s sending out a warning letter to everyone about it. If it continues after the letter, the fines will commence! Woohoo!

My incision is healing nicely, but man does my boob ache! Know it’s going to take a while to completely heal, but, OW! But it’s better than the alternative. :-) Went to see the surgeon last week and he told me that there was absolutely no sign of malignancy. YAY!!! He said I might develop more in the future and that I could have those removed as well which, to me, goes without saying.

Babs is doing incredibly well. She’s on only ¼ tablet of Salix per day now, and is taking her Enalapril like a trouper. Well, most of the time. She’s probably going to be on the Enalapril for the rest of her life. We were able to bring her back to our regular vet’s office earlier this week for her blood work and the vet we saw was the one who gave her the steroid shot. She told us she was horrified by what happened and felt like it was her fault. We both told her it was nobody’s fault. None of us had any way of knowing about her condition. The kitty cardiologist in Boston told us that cats hide heart disease very, very well and he wasn’t surprised at all by the chain of events. Think we had her feeling better by the time we left.

Here’s a recent picture of Babs and her brother, Buster. You'll notice the fur on Babs' left leg is still growing back in. That's where her IV was when she was in the hospital. She's got another shaved area on her chest. Anyway, don’t think I’ve posted any pictures of Buster here. This picture cracks us both up. Buster looks like he’s doing an old-time gangster impression – “I dumped the body in the river, see? But first I chewed his arm off so’s I could get the turkey leg away from him. Yeah, see?”



Goofy boy.

We’re hosting poker tomorrow evening. That’ll be fun. I’m making a kielbasa recipe in the slow-cooker that’s a combination of, well, kielbasa, whole berry cranberry sauce, chili sauce, brown sugar, garlic powder and I can’t remember what else right now. It’s reallllly yummy. Also going to make some of the awesome Knorr’s vegetable dip that Zee gave me the recipe for (thank you Zee!). It varies a little from what’s on the back of the box. Oh, and I’m going to make those yummy Stella D’Oro cookie thingies too.

Okay, gotta stop with the food talk. I’m drooling.

Lots more to say because I haven't really been around (and I have a TON of catching up to do on Valerie's blog and Fred's blog) but need to get some sleep. Happy day after Thanksgiving!

Another quick update

Hi, it's me. First, Babs is doing remarkably well. Many more details will come. She's so much her old self now it's wonderful.

Second, I had the fibroid in my right breast removed this morning. I'm still feeling a little loopy, nauseous and getting more sore as the day wears on, but as I told Zee, it's just a small step in an effort to keep cancer away so it's worth it.

Okay, I'm off to ice my boob and finish watching Celebrity Poker. Have a great one. :-)

Quick Update

My apologies for not posting this sooner, and for the fact that this is going to be short. Miss Babs is home and doing well! It took her a few days to finally come around and be herself again, but we definitely have the old Babs back right now. Yay! They did an EKG on her Monday afternoon and found that the walls of her heart are thickened so between that and the steroid shot she received to help her colitis was too much for her heart to take. She's now on insulin and a diuretic, and is going to be given another prescription next Tuesday when we take her back in for a follow-up at the clinic our vet sent us to. The new prescription is going to relax her veins, which will put less stress on her heart. Hopefully she won't be on any of these medicines a year from now. We'll just have to take it a day at a time.

Over the weekend my eyes were so puffy from crying they hurt. I was so afraid we were going to lose her.

We're beyond thrilled that she's back home! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!! :-)

Sweet Pea

Our little Sweet Pea...



...is currently at the (best, we found out) animal hospital in Boston. Very long story short, she has congestive heart failure. I'm accepting any prayers/good thoughts that can be spared from anyone. Her prognosis is "guarded/fair" and they expect we'll be able to bring her home tomorrow. Once we get her home and things are as back to normal as they can be, maybe I can discuss the events that led to our discovery of it but right now, there's just no way I can talk about it.

Zee, I would have called to let you know, but I've had all I can do to talk to Mom & Dad without breaking down every half minute. I'll update ASAP.

Know it's a few days early, but...

Happy Halloween!

Who wants to see a picture of Halloween boobies?!
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Quotables

The Man comes out with some one-liners that completely crack me up, and I decided while I still have one of them fresh in my memory, I'd start a spot specifically for them.

This one came last night while watching ESPN's Monday Night Football Countdown:

"Somebody just upholstered Michael Irvin!" -after witnessing one of Mr. Irvin's "suits".

Hisssss!

There was this bright yellow/orange thing in the sky today. When I stepped outside to go to work this morning I hissed and recoiled. To quote Zee, it felt like this, “MY EYES!! MY EYES!! It's too bright! AAAGGGHHHHH!!!”



Yeah, it was pretty harsh. Got used to it as the day wore on, though. Think I might actually like it. Wouldn’t mind at all if it sticks around for a while. Although it seems to have melted a lot of people’s brains. Three different times today I almost ran into someone because they blew right through a stop sign. And one of them looked at me as if I were the ass.

Yeah. When she gave me that look I saluted her for her superior stupidity.

We bought a rug cleaner on Saturday and went nuts cleaning. We started in the computer room on Saturday and did the living room and dining room yesterday. I’m amazed at the difference. And I still can’t get over how much stuff we’ve thrown out just from the computer room alone, and how much we still have to go through. It’s the room where everything goes when I don’t know what else to do with it. The Man took out 4 or 5 garbage bags and 2 large boxes full of stuff to the dumpster. There may have been a few things we could’ve sold on eBay, but it wasn’t worth the hassle. We just wanted it gone.

As we were readying the computer room for rug cleaning, we heard the very loud “boom, boom, boom” of someone’s stereo. One of my biggest pet peeves where we live is people having no consideration for their neighbors. The volume some people play their music at is just unacceptable for our type of living arrangement. Well, we finally figured out that the music was coming from the guy living in the unit directly below us. You remember him – the one who stole our doormat (although The Man still thinks it could have been an accident…). Now, when this guy first moved in, he was quick to complain about how loud other people play their music so all I can figure is after a few months he figured it’s okay for him to do too.

Well... ummm... it's not.

We get more than our share of loud music (so loud you can sing along to it) from the people across the hall, the stoner next door and the people in the next building over whose unit abuts ours. We realized that it was new boy downstairs who was playing it so loudly this time, and then also realized that it’s been him that’s been blasting it at 11:30 at night for the past few weeks.

So guess what we did? We gave him a taste of what he was dishing. All I can say is, God bless The Man for buying a sub-woofer for the computer. I signed on to Rhapsody (this is not a Rhapsody plug - I hate it and am searching for a new music provider), looked up 'Tool' but all they had was some talkie-album thing. So we went for 'A Perfect Circle''s 3rd CD, which is heavily 'Tool' influenced (and if you know these two bands you know why), turned it up as loud as we could stand it and by the third song, he’d completely turned his music off. If he does it again, I’m marching downstairs and stealing my doormat back.

The weekend prior to this one we made a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond. We were in need of a new comforter for the bed and some new bathroom rugs and towels. The comforter we got is so soft and comfortable I nearly drool just thinking about it.



The sleep study went about as I expected. In total I maybe got 3 hours of sleep. However, as tired as I was and as much as I hated wearing that mask, I felt better after those 3 hours of sleep than I do on a normal morning after a normal night of sleep. I'm expecting my doctor to call with results next week.

Scheduled my fibroid surgery already, too. Seems as though everything is happening at once. I'll be glad to have it all done and over with.

And Zee is coming down this weekend! YAY!!! Zee, does it have a name yet? ;-)

That's all for now. Good night!

Ahoy-hoy!

It's been a few weeks since I've logged on. Boy I've got a lot of catching up to do reading my favorite blogs.

Nothing too fun to talk about today. It's been busy. I've been tired. Haven't had the oomph to sit at the computer and put thoughts together once I'm done with the work day. Good news is, hopefully that will all be changing soon. Some of you know, some of you don't know, that I have sleep apnea. I'm heading to the hospital this evening for part two of my sleep study. Tonight I'll be using the CPAP machine, hopefully getting a good night of sleep, getting a proper diagnosis and then getting a machine of my own so I can sleep for a change. Huzzah! I do have a lot of problems falling and staying asleep for these tests though, so please wish me luck.

A few days after my last entry, The Man and I took a mini-vacation, went to visit my family in upstate NY and headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Took a ton of pictures which I would love to share right now, but it involves too much thinking. I'll share them soon. Promise. :-)

My friend and cousin "Zee" has a blood clot in her leg. Saying lots of prayers and sending good vibes, Zee! Please let me know how your next doctor visit goes.

Debating making a big spaghetti dinner this evening. Maybe if I have carbohydrate lag when I get to the hospital tonight I'll be able to fall asleep easily.

See? Even when I think I'm not thinking, I'm thinking. And that can be really scary.

Oh, oh, and I have a consulation appointment this Wednesday with a surgeon about getting the fibroid removed. That is, if I can get my prints from the imaging center before then.

Hope to be back soon and with a little more energy and a little more nonsense!

P.S. I've turned on word verification for comments. Because spammers bite.

Inquiring minds want to know...

...how far you can shove a cell phone up someone's butt before you can't hear it ring anymore.

...where a wav of Whitney Houston screaming "Kiss my ass!" at her dolt of a husband Bobby Brown can be found.

...why so many people read this blog but don't say hello! I don't bite. Well, not too hard, anyway. As long as you're not a spammer, please say hello!

Just crabbing. Nothing exciting.

Haven't had much to talk about. Last week I was ready to say what a big poop head The Man can sometimes be, but we talked it out so that was good.

A woman on my floor at work who works in a completely different department than I do thinks it's necessary to let me know her comings and goings. She leaves stuff on my desk for customers to pick up when she's not going to be around. She's called to ask me to set up her phone to forward calls to her cell phone because she forgot to set it up before she left the office (we have voicemail - we're not in the dark ages here). This week she's been sending me email when she's going to be in late. I've come close to hitting the reply button and saying, "And I care because...?" As my PMS storm grows ever larger, her emails are growing ever so more annoying. If there's another one from her in my inbox tomorrow morning, I'm going to shove my keyboard up her... I mean, I'm going to talk with my boss about it. I've enough things to do without needlessly catering to this idiot.

God, sometimes I really hate being a nice person.

Babs' colitis isn't getting any better. Took her back to the vet last Saturday. They suggested Prednisone. We said no. There has to be a better way to help her. They're looking into a new steroid that supposedly stays in the intestines and doesn't get absorbed, thus no diabetes risk. They sent us home with special food, which she won't eat, and told us if the colitis didn't get any better this week to give them a call. It's still not getting better. Fortunately she's still eating and drinking normally, but I'm certain she's having no more fun with it than we are. Poor thing.

We submitted the following picture of her to the hateful kitty site just this past week. Keep your fingers crossed!



As pissed as she looks, she's really not.

It's really past my bedtime and I'm certain that I'm making no sense right now. So. Goodnight.

Have you ever...

...said something and it came out sounding totally opposite of what you meant? I do it so much I can't stand it. I don't know how I do it and, try as I may not to, I still do. It happens in conversation. It happens when I write. Sometimes when I go back and re-read something I've written in my blog or on a message board I'm horrified by how it sounds, knowing full well that it wasn't my intention for it to sound that way. Sure I could go in and edit it to make it sound the way I intended, but a majority of people that are going to read it have already done so by then and have already decided that I'm no better than a steaming pile of dog poo.

I suck.

The Man and I finally went grocery shopping this morning at BJ's. We were down to some eggs, pasta, bread and peanut butter - good ingredients for an Iron Chef, maybe. Finished off my birthday carrot cake for breakfast this morning because, well, that's about all there was to eat! This is what the cake looked like Thursday once we finally started digging in to it at work:



We're heading back out at some point either this evening or tomorrow to finally celebrate my birthday. The more my actual birthday wore on, the more it went downhill. Between being anxious about getting Babs to and from the vet with all the crazy ass drivers that live around here, then all the poking, prodding, x-rays, etc., she endured at the vets office, my migraine, Babs' colitis kicking into high gear when we got home and making her leave a trail from the bathroom, down the hallway and into the dining room, by the time The Man got home I was mentally and physically exhausted. The headache part of my migraine was down to a dull roar by then so that I could at least realize that in spite of my nauseousness, I was incredibly hungry. So we ordered some pizza, pasta and fries from a local pizza shop that makes pretty good food and the 4 of us spent the evening curled up on the couch watching the Red Sox game.

When The Man got home from work that night he gave me a great big hug and said, "I'm sorry your birthday sucked." I just smiled and said it was okay, that I'd had worse. And as my mother pointed out, I've got a roof over my head and a place to sleep and in light of everything going on where Hurricane Katrina hit, I should be thankful for what I have.

And I am.

Harry

This is one of the many reasons I admire Harry Connick, Jr. as much as I do.

I'd not been teary eyed once about what's going on in Katrina's aftermath until I saw Harry on the Today show this morning. You could see and hear his sadness and frustration. I wouldn't put it past him to head back to NOLA in spite of all the warnings and do whatever he can to help out.

Should anyone reading this not feel opposed to do so, please check out the NOLA Relief Fund on connick.com and donate should you feel so inclined, or please consider making a donation with your local Red Cross. Katrina's victims need all the support they can get right now.

They say it's your birthday

"It's my birthday too, ya"

Yup, today is my 35th birthday. And what a day it's been! Got up at 6, was at work by 8. Got a bunch of well wishes, an entire carrot cake from my favorite bakery which will be cut into tomorrow, an iced coffee and munchkins from Dunkin' Donuts and very little stress from the regular cast of characters that seem to go out of their way to annoy the living crap out of me.

Our Marketing guru put together and sent me this wish from my man, the pitching god, Curt Schilling. She rocks.



Yum.

We have tickets for tonight's Red Sox game but we're not going. The weather is looking pretty scary. Plus I feel like I'm heading for a migraine so wouldn't mind staying home curled up on the couch tonight. Went on a cleaning rampage last night so can rest comfortably this evening. We're still considering going out for dinner but The Man may have to work late. Right now I'm pretty content staying home anyway. We've got all weekend to celebrate!

Left work early today. Initially it was to give myself time to come home, change and head into town for the game. However, I ended up taking my little sweet pea (pictured here)...



...back to the vet at 2:30 this afternoon. Already brought her in last Friday. She's been having some bowel issues. Poor baby. It appears she has colitis. Her brother has IBS. IBS seems to be more controllable than colitis. She's already used 2 bath mats instead of her pan to let me know something's up with her. She's been on an antibiotic/anti-inflammatory since Friday evening but she hasn't gotten any better yet. Today the vet gave me special food to give her. I hope it helps.

Well, I hear thunder rumbling so better turn the computer off. Will be back later with more gnus!

Hope this works

Messed up my template somehow. Will make it right when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard.

All-clear

It was a heck of a week. Not sure if I'm ready for the next, but here it comes anyway.

First things first. Once again I have been given the all-clear. There is NO cancer! The shadow was just tissue on top of tissue that created the illusion of a mass. And although the fibroid has grown, at the moment it's still benign. I'm thrilled to tears, but I'm getting mighty tired of these scares! Have an appointment with my regular doctor this Thursday and am going to be firm about having the fibroid removed. The doctor who read all my prints on Thursday said she felt I was too young to have the fibroid removed because it's going to leave a scar.

*Gasp!*

A scar! Boy, oh boy, whatever shall I do? Behind Curtain A there's living with (another) scar which only myself and The Man will see. Behind Curtain B there's living with a little time bomb ticking away inside my boob.

I'd like what's behind Curtain A, Bob!

On Friday I emailed The Man and said with the good outcome I had on Thursday and the fact that summer is winding down pretty quickly, hows about we get out and about this weekend? He wrote back saying he'd been thinking the same thing, so we decided on the Museum of Science. There's a new baby monkey there. Here's a picture of Mama monkey with the baby on her back. So cute!



This is Papa Monkey. Every time The Man was trying to take his picture he kept giving him this look like, "Dude!"



Silly, silly monkeys.

We had a great day yesterday. Spent a majority of the day at the museum and took the time to check out a lot of exhibits that we've only skimmed over before, like the dinosaur exhibit.



The Man made that his desktop picture when we got home. Looks very cool.

When we left the museum we considered going to Houston's for dinner, which is right next to Faneuil Hall, but the tourist to native ratio was grossly out of proportion, so we skipped it (for now), came home and ordered delivery from our favorite Chinese restaurant. And had a drink. Mmm... White Russian.

I made a Diaryland entry last weekend about my cancer scare. Only one person out of the few people who read me there had the decency to leave a note (Fred-X please don't think any of my wrath towards my D'land readers includes you!). So, spiteful bitch that I am, I'm not posting my results there. I'm emailing that one person to let her know my good outcome, because she truly cares and wants to know how I'm doing. The rest of them can ROT!

MWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!

Speaking of Fred-X, I want to share a more recent, and accurate, picture of my fridge.



This evening we're having leftover pasta and sauce with garlic bread and various sliced veggies. The sauce has been made more palatable with the additions of ground beef and my very own secret hobo spices. Supper's at 6!

Asshole magnet

Well, I thought I liked the new guy that lives in the unit directly below us. That was until he stole our freakin' doormat!

I swear to God the building we live in is one big asshole magnet!

Here's what I'm thinking. We either:

A. Steal the doormat back;
B. Steal the doormat back, tape a $5 bill to his front door and leave a sticky note saying "Sorry you couldn't afford your own. Steal ours again and we break your hands."; or
C. Steal the doormat back and replace it with one that says this.

I’m just amazed he had the audacity to take it and then put it in front of his own door. Did he think we wouldn't notice?

WTF?!

Spam boobs

I want to see an episode of Iron Chef where Spam is the secret ingredient.

Other than my boyfriend, the only people that currently know this blog exists are Fred and Fred. That's cool. I don't know if I want to alert anyone else to the existence of this blog now.

I'm tired of calling my boyfriend "my boyfriend" here. He was simply "D" on Diaryland. For now, I shall call him... The Man. Sensational name, eh?

The Red Sox lost with authority last night.

I fell asleep at 8:30 last night and slept until 8:20 this morning.

I made killer spaghetti sauce for lunch today. Well, neither of us died, so I suppose I shouldn't call it killer. It was wicked... Wicked good...

Today I added crushed red pepper flakes to my spaghetti sauce, which I haven't done in a long time. When I did I could distinctly hear my grandfather saying to me, "Atta girl!" He put red pepper flakes on everything. I miss Gramps.

I might take a picture of the leftover spaghetti sauce to push Fred-X over the edge and make him fly out for dinner. I think he and The Man would get along great! The only night that's not good is Thursday.

My mammogram/ultrasound isn't until the 18th, unless they get a cancellation between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed! When The Man and I were talking about it the other night, I told him if worse came to worse, whether now or down the road, and there was cancer and I ultimately had to have a mastectomy, that I could get implants and have porn chick boobs. That'd be cool. I could lay on my back and they'd still be nice and perky. Perky boobs are good.

Maybe the Iron Chefs could make Spam boobs.

Mmm... spam boobs.

Damn boob

I've mentioned in my Diaryland entries that I've had a few scares with spots on my right breast. Had my regularly scheduled mammography in June, not long after I'd had an ultrasound because I was experiencing pain in the area we've been keeping an eye on.

So.

My doctor called this evening. I have to go back for a follow-up mammography and yet another ultrasound. The spot we've been watching has grown a little, and one of the prints showed a shadow on the right breast but in a different area than the one that's being watched. I had a brief meltdown after I finished talking with her. I wasn't going to let myself have the meltdown but my boyfriend seemed to just sit there and wait for me to get it out. I'm glad he did. We were chuckling (me through tears) at the end of it and I'm feeling a little less anxious now.

But it still sucks.

In talking with my boyfriend about it, we agreed that I'm not going to get the area biopsied and then wait and see what the doctors find. I'm going to ask to have it removed - then they can do whatever they want to it and tell me what's going on.

Freakin' boob.

WHOOPEEEEE!

I made whoopie pies on Saturday. One of my boyfriend’s buddies is on vacation with his family at the beach this week and invited a bunch of us over on Sunday, so I made them to bring with us. We didn’t go, though. The weather was dreary, my boyfriend was pretty tired and I was in a funk over having to go back to work. The filling is made with Crisco. Yeah, that’s right – Crisco! And it’s damn good!

We had a thunderstorm Tuesday night that made me just about jump out of my skin. Typically thunderstorms don’t bother me, but I was in the middle of a very creepy dream when I was woken by a nasty clap of thunder. I was so petrified I couldn’t move until I realized my boyfriend was still in bed (he often gets up halfway through the night and goes out on the couch). Yeah I’m a wuss. I know it. The storm lasted a good half hour and was pretty intense the whole time. It was just one in a large string of storms that stretched across much of Massachusetts. The lightning was like a strobe light. If we had a disco ball in the place we could’ve pretended we were in a dance club.

“Yeah, baby! Shake that ass!”

When I got into work yesterday our phones were knocked out, the air conditioning wasn’t working, nor was the drive-up teller’s area, and our ATM machines were fried. We’re not sure if lightning hit the building directly or hit surrounding wires and the current traveled into the building. We got the phones and air-conditioning back just before noon. Before the A/C came back on some of us were trying to convince Marketing we could write off an office kegger. They weren’t going for it, but it was worth a try!

The first day back to work went as well as could be expected. The weather Monday morning was gloomy and rainy – fit my dreary mood like a glove. It took until early afternoon just to get through and deal with all my email. Fortunately I had no voice mail. I don’t know how that happened but I’m not complaining!

I received a lot of “You look so rested”, “You look great”, etc., compliments on Monday, too. It was nice. One person told me my spirits were too high for it to be my first day back from vacation! As I always say (and try to always do) – It’s better to laugh than cry.

I need to get back on the *healthy eating and consistent exercise wagon*. Weighed myself this morning and was annoyed to see I gained back 5 pounds while on vacation (I'd lost 15 before we left). Half way through our week at the beach I stopped paying attention to what I was eating. And drinking. Alcohol isn’t exactly diet friendly. The only time I really drink is when we’re at the beach. The rest of the time I’ll have a drink here and there but when we’re at the beach, I want at least one cold drink in my hand every single day, thankyouverymuch! So, I’m back to eating healthier today. I'm following the Weight Watchers Flex Points program. As for exercising, I need to figure out if I’m going to a) renew my membership at the gym and get diligent about going, b) invest in a piece of equipment such as an elliptical trainer, or c) just use the exercise tapes I currently have. But I can take just so much of Richard Simmons.

But...

I don't wanna go back to work. :-(

Mmm... cookies

I made peanut butter cookies today. I haven't made peanut butter cookies in a long time. Dug around for the recipe and ended up calling Mom for it because I couldn't find it. They're nice and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. And they're reaaaally good with a cold glass of milk. Mmm...



Betty Crocker can kiss my... buns.

Mmm... buns.

Sweet nectar of the Buffalo gods!

Buffalo bliss in a bottle.



If you don't have it, get it! If your store doesn't sell it, torch it! I mean, demand they do!

Deadbeats and refrigerators

Well, the (deadbeat) neighbors I mentioned yesterday got into a little bit of trouble with the law last night. We've had our suspicions about them, and even after what another neighbor told us about when we got back from the beach on Saturday we were hoping we were all just overreacting. Well, they're drug dealers. And Lord only knows what else (I have suspicions of other things that I'd rather not mention right now). I heard a ruckus outside last night, saw the flashing lights and tried my best to peek out the curtains without being seen, but saw nothing other than two cops walking around. Heard a dog too but didn't see it. Found out this morning what happened from the neighbor who told us about last week's goings-on. I hope these people go away very, very soon. Either to jail, wherever they moved here from, a ditch - I don't care so long as they just.go.away.

On a lighter note, as promised, here's a picture of my sparkling clean refrigerator!



Went grocery shopping this morning so it doesn't look so sparse anymore. Actually it doesn't really look sparse, there was just no real food in there when I took the picture. Picked up a bottle of buffalo sauce marinade and am getting ready to go slather it over some chicken and throw it in the oven. Hope it's good!

Fonts, pictures and visits (oh my?)

Please pardon me while I play with different fonts during the next few entries. I'm almost ashamed to admit I've spent most of the evening here just playing around with settings and stuff. There's so much else I should be doing around here.

I wanted to take a picture of my insanely clean refrigerator to share with the world, but my boyfriend took the camera to volleyball this evening. If I remember to take the picture tomorrow I'll be sure to post it right away. I know everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what's in my fridge...

Called my parents a little earlier and had a good chat with my dad. He knows how much I want to visit but also knows how much I've got going on here and told me to stay home and get a good handle on everything before I have to go back to work next week. Should I listen to him or go visit anyway?

My spiritual life has been lacking lately and I'd like to go to morning Mass tomorrow. Trouble is, my usual church (I say that as if I go regularly... who am I kidding?) has a tendency to halt weekday morning Mass during summer vacation. So... do I show up at 9 and look like an idiot if they've suspended morning Mass again or suck it up and go to the 6:45 Mass down the street? Will I even be awake then? Either way, I need to get my butt back to Mass on a regular basis. I've had a few issues with the Catholic Church which is why I go only sporadically. But as my trainer told me, "Honey, you've got to go for God, not for the church." I know she's right.

I love being home. I love planning dinner and actually having the time to cook it. I love not being too tired to keep my place picked up, clean and comfortable. We have got to win the lottery.

I'm going to get away from the computer for a while and watch the end of the Red Sox game. Hope Matt Clement's all right.

Where did the time go?

I've spent a mere 15 minutes checking out blogger.com (thank you FRED!) and am already much more impressed and pleased with it than I am with Diaryland. Now I can't wait for my D'land membership to expire.

On Saturday my boyfriend and I returned from a week at the beach. We go with many members of his family and aside from the occasional screaming child and one or two annoying family members, we typically have a great time. Right now we're still trying to figure out where last week went. One night we were all sitting in a circle on the beach, tiki torches ablaze, cold drinks a-plenty, listening to music, doing the hand jive and AC/DC impressions and next thing we know, we're home unpacking and finding things out about our neighbors we wish we hadn't (which I may or may not elaborate on later).

I'm still on vacation this week and am debating taking a few days to go visit my family. Thing is, I finished unpacking just this morning and am now trying to straighten everything back to the way it was before we left. The living room and dining room are once again tidy and relaxed, but I'm still trying to get the bedroom situated. That could easily take up the rest of the day. Still need to vacuum as well, but wanted to wait until everything was unpacked as sand can hide everywhere.

We haven't hooked Lappy (our laptop, so named after Strong Bad's laptop) up to the computer yet to transfer pictures we took at the beach this year, but as soon as we do I'll post a few.

Have a great afternoon!