Cats 'n' food. Mmm... cat food.

Where has the time gone?

2008-06-17T22:48:00.004-04:00

A month ago today we arrived in San Francisco for a week. It seems like a lifetime ago. And I now have a better appreciation for Tony Bennett's song about the city. We can't wait to go back. What a fantastic city. What a fantastic vacation. Here are only a few of my favorite pictures from the week.

Union Square viewed from high atop (okay, not really that high) Macy's at the Cheesecake Factory.

Sea lions at Pier 39! Say it with me... "Awwwww!"

Say hello to my little friend! A ray (manta?) at the Pier 39 aquarium.

*sigh*

*sigh*

I mean...

NOM!

We've decided that when (WHEN, dammit!) we win the lottery, we're definitely getting a place in San Francisco. And our friends and family are all invited to visit us there as often as they want!

Good news - I'm giving my notice tomorrow! I'm sure my boss will be shocked! Though we all know she shouldn't be. All the warning signs have been there for quite some time, I've even tried to talk to her several times about my grievances, but she didn't want to hear it. So, see ya! My new job will be as a payroll administrator. Going to start on July 7. I've got a good feeling about it. Let's hope it lasts a long time!

Well isn't that special?

2008-05-08T06:49:00.006-04:00

The DaVinci Code was on the Encore Mystery channel Tuesday night, and since I didn't feel like playing Mass Effect or watching the Red Sox game (no, really, I feel fine), I decided to watch it. I thought it was... interesting... and decided I'd like to read both books. I went to ebay yesterday morning and plugged in the author's name, Dan Brown, and get this - 666 items were found. No joke! I snortled (you know, a cross between a snort and a chortle) and thought maybe I won't purchase them through ebay. Or I'll leave it up to The Man to pick up copies somewhere.

9 days to San Francisco! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awwwww...

2008-03-20T22:51:00.005-04:00

I'm always wanting to make cards for The Man's niece and nephew. They're still very young and I know they'd get a kick out of them. I finally made myself sit down and make them each a card for Easter, and they're going in the mail tomorrow. No worries - they'll have them on Saturday!

Here's the card for his nephew. It's a CASE of a card a friend of mine found on Splitcoast Stampers. Love it! The last panel being slightly askew is getting under my skin, though. Knew I should've used a ruler to line them up.

Here's the card for his niece.

I'm not thrilled with how his niece's card came out, but after spending about 3 hours trying to come up with something, I just decided to keep it simple.

I hope they like them!

I planned to take a picture of the card we sent this past Christmas, but I couldn't find it! If I can't take a picture right away of something I've made, I always keep one card aside so I've got a template. It'll turn up somewhere. As soon as it does, I'll share!

Busy, hectic, crazy week. That's nothing new. My brain is fried, and I'm exhausted. Still feeling overwhelmed in English Comp, but know I can get through it.

And, we're both off from work tomorrow! His office is closed, and I'm taking a personal day. It's going to be so nice sleeping in tomorrow. The only plan we have so far is going to the Olive Garden for lunch. Being that it's Good Friday, I'm going to make that my main meal for the day. Well, half of the portion size will be my main meal! Their portions are ginormous. The only thing I know for sure that I'm getting is an Italian orange cream soda. Yum!

Not sure yet what we're doing on Easter. We'd originally planned to head to NY, but it just didn't pan out. Then I wanted to invite everyone out here, but Dad's not feeling great, and I wouldn't want him and Mom to be alone on Easter if my sister and her family headed out this way. So, we may head to The Man's grandmother's house for Easter dinner. Or I may just cook up the itty bitty roast beast I picked up at the grocery store today, make some garlic mashed potatoes, find a good veggie and have our own humble little Easter dinner.

I'm having a Tastefully Simple party next Saturday. I wish you two could make it!!! I'm looking forward to it, though. I've got 5 positive responses so far, and two maybe's because they might have to work. If you've never heard of Tastefully Simple before (I hadn't until my neighbor had a party back in October), check out their stuff here. Their beer bread mix is fantastic. And I love the fact that when someone orders something at or through a party, the order is shipped directly to them - it doesn't all go to the hostess who then has to dole it all out and deliver it. That's freakin' sweet.

Okay, so this was way too scattered. Good thing it's not being graded!

Valerie, you'll have my email shortly! :-)

She's Alive!

2008-03-13T14:33:00.003-04:00

Lucky for both of you who read this blog, the course I'm enrolled in right now highly suggests that we journal on a daily basis. I'm not saying I'll be able to post every day but compared to how much I've been around here lately, anything will be an improvement. So, strap yourselves in and get ready for more excitement from the life of the mundane!

Okay, but really. HI VALERIE! I've missed hanging out at your place. I'm going to stop over this evening to say hello (not enough time right now - I'm on my lunch break, and still need to give the kittehs their treats before they revolt). OH! And thank you for getting to the bottom of the MASH game for me! Your investigation revealed that I did play it when I was young! I'd completely forgotten that's what it was.

So, yes, I'm still taking college edumacation courses. Right now I'm enrolled in an English Comp class, and am horrified at my beginnings. Turns out you forget a hell of a lot more than you think you did since high school. I can look at a sentence and know the structure is wrong, and fix it so that it looks right. However, this whole simple sentence, complex-compound sentence thing, along with proper adverb and adjective placement thing is going to push me over the edge. I talked with the prof last night and he gave me some really good examples that I wrote down in an effort to remember going forward, otherwise I'm going to continue to suck in this course. And that pisses me off, because I love to write. Between you and me, I honestly don't give a rat's ass if a sentence is wrong because it contains an out-of-place adverb that can be uttered only by the Pope during every other year that Easter falls in April. But for the sake of doing well in this course, I kind of, sort of, have to. At least the prof is cool. For once, a teacher "gets" me. Before our conversation ended last night, he thanked me for having a personality in the class forum, and in person. There are quite a few folks in the course who are pretty lifeless. I can't remember a single class forum discussion in any of the classes I've taken so far where any of the teachers or the other students "got" me. So thank you Senor P for your understanding, and for your own wry sense of humor. Hope my future holds more of your courses. I'll bring the Swiss cheese and mustard.

I had an interesting job interview last month that, if anything, made me feel absolutely fantastic about myself, my intelligence and my capabilities. It was for an Administrative Assistant position at a brokerage firm. Roughly 10 to 15 minutes into the interview, the guy told me flat out that he wasn't going to hire me. The reason? He said that between what I was telling him, and what he saw on my resume, I was going to be bored inside of a year and leave. He went on to say that I was too smart to continue doing admin work.

Wow.

That was a hugely refreshing ego booster. My current employer squashed that pretty quickly though. But I don't want to get started on my ire towards them right now.

The cats are starting to swing from the curtains. I'd best get their treats.

More later!

The 80's - my favorite decade!

2008-02-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

A little trip down memory lane, survey style.

1. How old were you in 1980?
10

2. How old were you in 1989?
19

3. Were you a Toys R' US Kid?
You betcha!

4. Did you watch Transformers?
Nope.

5. Did you see E.T. on the big screen?
Several times.

6. Did you own a Lite Bright?
Yes. That thing rocked.

7. Who is your Favorite Golden Girl?
Sophia.

8. When someone says "Who you gonna call?" you think?
GHOSTBUSTERS!

9. What was/were your favorite toy(S)?
Merlin, Simon, was Atari a toy?

10. Did you have a Pogo Ball?
A what now?

11. Did you listen to New Kids on the Block?
Good God, no.

12. What New Kid did you have a crush on?
To this day I don't know who any of them are, and I'm okay with that.

13. Did you play M.A.S.H?
No... didn't know it was a game. I watched M*A*S*H on TV though.

14. Did you watch The Care Bears?
Sometimes.

15. Did you have Jelly bracelets?
Gazillions.

16. Did you own a glo-worm?
Nope.

17. Did you ever own a slap bracelet?
No. I didn't like them.

18. The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles?
Awwwww, man. Do I have to choose?? Hmmm... Sixteen Candles.

19. Did you have a crazy hair style?
Not until I got that perm in my senior year. Holy crap. What was I thinking?

20. What was your first bike?
A little red tricycle!

21. Name one thing you still own from your childhood?
I've got my huge Bear Bear that my brother gave me, the koala my parents gave me (and who is currently residing with my parents), and a little trinket box my Mom's best friend gave me when I was really, really sick. Okay, that's more than one. Get over it.

22. Did you have a Cabbage Patch Kid?
Never. Those things were, and still are, creepy.

23. Did you dress like Madonna?
Uh, no.

24. Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake?
Strawberry Shortcake.

25. Did you watch Miami Vice?
Every Friday night at my sister's house, without fail.

26. Did you own a pair of Jelly Shoes?
Yeah, I wore them once. Those things suck.

27. Did you own a Trapper Keeper?
Yup. It had a picture of a couple of very cute gray tiger kittens on it.

28. Atari or Nintendo?
We had Atari. Frogger ruled.

29. Did you play Pac-Man?
That's what we played when we weren't playing Frogger.

30. Which was better:
To this day I've never played Nintendo, so I have to say Atari.

31. He-Man or She-Ra?
Yikes. I'll pass.

32. What movie scared you the most?
Alien (I know it came out in 1979, but I didn't watch it until 1982).

33. Did you try to dance like Michael Jackson?
No.

34. What Is The First Thing That Comes To Mind When You Hear "Flux Capacitor"?
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit."

35. What other colors did Pepsi come in?
Clear. And it was gross.

36. Roger Rabbit Or Howard The Duck?
Roger Rabbit!

37. Did you ever beg your parents to have your school picture taken with the 'LASER' background?
No.

38. Do you know what the Ninja Rap is?
Awww man, now I'm gonna have nightmares about Vanilla Ice. Jeez.

39. Do you know why people cringe when they hear the word BUCKNER?
Oh yes.

40. Can you name the family members from National Lampoons Vacation movies?
Clark, Ellen, Rusty, Audrey, Christie Brinkley, cousin Eddie, Aunt Edna, Lasky, Roy Walley, Uncle Lewis (Christmas), that's all I can think of right now.

41. WallyWorld or Europe?
WallyWorld! WallyWorld! WallyWorld!

42. What was your favorite movie from the 80's?
Anne of Green Gables (the 1985 version in which Anne is played by Megan Follows). Love, love, love, love, love that movie.

Best. Super Bowl Commercial. Ever.

2008-02-03T10:29:00.002-05:00

Oh, and by the way -

GO GIANTS!!!

Coming up for air

2007-10-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

What a busy few months it's been, boys and girls. So much has been going on since my last entry. Given my state of my mind during that week, The Man and I decided we'd try to head to NY so I could spend my birthday with family. Everything fell into place beautifully - the vet had room so we could board Buster and Lucy for the long weekend. The Man's eye was healing well (he had a little more surgery on 8/30), and we had both already scheduled 8/30 and 8/31 off, so we didn't have to worry about missing work. It was so nice to be home, surrounded by family. I really needed it this year.

School has been taking up a majority of my free time. And when I'm not working, or working on school stuff, I'm demonstrating stamping workshops. And I've demo'd only 2 workshops since my last blogging (will try to find some time this weekend to post pics of what we've made). And the really sad part? I'm taking only one course right now. Basic Math. Yeah. I suck so hard at math that I'm struggling through the basic stuff. And I'm taking algebra next term! Yee-haw! May as well get it out of the way so I don't have it hanging over my head for the next two years. Thank God The Man has been helping me when I need it. Which is pretty much all the time. In college he majored in math (and how's this for a math mind - he can look over a Rubik's cube, then put it behind his back and solve it - and that's just sick), and he has the ability to help me work through a problem without giving me the answer, and without making me feel like an idiot, though I know I am. He'd be an awesome teacher. My course advisor tried to talk me into taking two courses next term, and The Man said, "You're struggling with basic math now, have already signed up for algebra next term, which is more difficult, the holidays are coming and you're going to take a second course?" He didn't verbally end the sentence with "Are you out of your mind?" but it was written all over his face. So I emailed my advisor and the registrar and said thanks but no thanks, one course is sufficient for next term.

In other news...

File this one under "That ain't right." It's Tuesday, October 23. It's 11:15 pm. It's 72 degrees outside - and I'd convert that to Celsius for ya, but there's a leak in my brain - the air conditioner is on and it's still so warm in here that my fingers are swollen. How's that for "This sucks ass!"? I shouldn't complain. Every day of warmth is one less day to worry about snow and how people around here lack the skills to drive in it.

The woman at work who's daughter was killed and granddaughters were shot in the head? Both granddaughters are out of their comas, are gaining strength and can get around with walkers! They've still got a long way to go, though. Last I knew (a few weeks ago) neither of them was able to speak yet. But they're both alive, responding, walking, and that is just nothing short of a miracle.

The Man and I went to Game 2 of the ALCS, a week ago last Saturday. Which the Red Sox lost. In the 11th inning. Around 1:30 AM. We weren't able to get tickets to any regular season games, and the Friday morning before Game 2 he called me at work and said, "I've got a crazy thought..." We agreed it'd be best to stay in town, so we got a room at a really nice hotel (I try to not think about how much it cost to stay there for just the one night), drove there, then took the Green Line over to Fenway and then after the game took a taxi back to the hotel. It was so nice after the game knowing we wouldn't have to fight the crowds on the Green Line, or with traffic trying to head out of town. What a warm and fuzzy feeling it was when we got into that taxi, knowing that within 15 minutes we'd be snug as bugs and sound asleep. Even though the Sox lost that game, we're so glad we went. Neither of us had ever been to a playoff game, and it was quite an experience. The crowd was so alive, and very well behaved that night, and seemed to behave throughout the entire series. The game we attended, there was no beer was spilled on us. We didn't hear a lot of swearing. Well, until we were walking down Lansdowne Street after they put Gagne in to pitch the 11th. But the words we heard aren't suitable for printing here. The closest we'd been to a playoff/World Series game was in 2004 when we took the tour of Fenway on the first day of the World Series. I kid you not, it felt like there was electricity in the air. It was incredible. I'll never forget the feeling. We briefly considered trying to get World Series tickets this year, but the home games are on weeknights, and with our schedules, it'd just be insane. So we'll suffer with the rest of the nation (Red Sox and otherwise!) through the ramblings and idiocy that spew from the mouth of Tim McCarver. I'm so throwing a party when FOX stops signing him to cover baseball.

The weekend before The Man and I went to the game, my Haggis buddies and I went to 4 fabulous Enter the Haggis shows in 2 short nights. I so needed that break. I'm glad The Man and Zee continued to encourage me to go, even though the weight of the world that's been on me was telling me otherwise. Wish we could have weekends like that, say, every other month. Good friends, good food, good booze, good music. Doesn't get much better than that. :-)

Well, it's getting late, my mind is mush thanks to the splendor of mathematics, and I've got another long, annoying day ahead of me at work tomorrow. So, toodles for now. Hope everyone is well. And hope I can find some more free time to keep up with bloggings. Because, really, what I've written here is only the tip of the iceberg.

It's tomorrow, today

2007-08-30T15:50:00.001-04:00

Not sure where to even begin to tell you about all the things about this week that have made it a rough one, but I'm going to try, because I need to get it out of my system.

Monday was already a bad week. And it was only the first day of the week, so that's gotta tell you something.

This particular frame of time has been tough for me for quite some time now. On August 22, 1992, 9 days before my 22nd birthday, my sweetheart, angel of a cat Grace passed away. She left in typical cat fashion - went around and said her goodbyes to everyone, then walked on up into the woods, never to be seen again. Only at the time, we didn't know she was saying goodbye.

Fast forward several years, to the first birthday without my Aunt B. Her birthday was August 27, only 4 days before mine. It was always neat, having our birthdays so close together. She was like my 2nd Mom. She was always a good ear when I was upset with my mother (she and my mother were sisters), and always had a way of showing me my mother's point of view without making me feel like an idiot. And sometimes when she felt Mom and Dad were being a little too strict, she'd talk to Mom about it, and it always went smoothly. She was an awesome woman, and I still miss her every single day.

Then there was last year. On August 11, the CFO where I work died of heart failure. He had turned 49 only weeks before. It was a shock to the entire bank. He was, without a doubt, one of the top 3 best people to work for there. Very approachable, very likable, laid back. An overall good guy. The floor I work on was so eerily quiet in the weeks following his death I almost couldn't stand it. For months I'd always stop short when I walked by his office.

And then, on August 28 of last year, Babs passed away, very unexpectedly. 3 days before my birthday. I was devastated. I still struggle with it. I questioned God on why he kept taking my babies away from me just before my birthday. I still don't have an answer. Maybe I'm not ready for it. Maybe I won't know until I'm in heaven. And I can't tell you how many times I've begged Him to let me keep my Buster for at least another 10 years, and to please not take him from me near my birthday. Lucy, either.

And here we are, present day. Only let's go back to Monday, August 27. I was already down, had already been teary eyed and very emotional for a majority of the weekend, and then here it was again. August 27. Aunt B's birthday, and only a day to the year since Babs passed away. I was still very emotional and trying very hard not to be. Around 11:30 that morning, we find out that a daughter and possibly 2 granddaughters of a woman we work with might have been killed by the hand of another. My heart immediately went into my stomach, and I wanted to throw up. Details were sketchy, nobody really knew what was going on, only that the daughter that lives with her came to pick her up to to go her other daughter's house. At first, it was assumed all 3 of them were dead. News reports, as is true of many, gave out many details that hadn't yet been confirmed by police, or family, but they went ahead and made their reports anyway. We finally learn for a fact that her daughter is dead. Shot in the head. Their dog was dead. Also shot. But the 2 granddaughters that were in the house at the time were still alive, but had also been shot in the head. As I write, they're both still in critical condition. Miraculously, during the night Tuesday one of them opened her eyes and wiggled her toes, so there is a shred of hope. The other, as far as I know, is still in a coma. Their grandmother, the woman I work with, is holding herself together remarkably well. I credit that to an enormous amount of prayer support, family support and community support (in that order). And if anyone who reads this feels inclined to add their prayers and good thoughts as well, please feel free to do so. I know they will be appreciated.

So my emotional birthday week just keeps getting more and more emotional each year, it seems. I feel guilty celebrating. I feel guilty if I don't go to the wake tomorrow. I have a hard enough time being happy on my birthday as it is. Is it selfish to not go to the wake because I can't deal with any more birthday heartbreak?

And can I have one year, just one stinking lousy birthday, without some sort of heartache surrounding it?

Maybe I don't want to know the answer to that question, either.

I will try to have a happy day tomorrow, for my own sake, and for that of my parents, who are happy that I am their daughter. And I am happy and blessed that they are my parents.

Amen, sister!

2007-08-29T20:48:00.000-04:00

So much to write about, and I will. Tomorrow. No, really!

In the meantime, please enjoy the following video from a girl after my own heart. I give you Miss Platnum.

SPOON!

2007-08-22T06:57:00.000-04:00

The Man allowed me one early birthday present last night, since he had the box shipped to my office and I had to stare at it all day yesterday. He can be a brat, but he always redeems himself. He allowed me to open this:

Surprised I didn't squeal like a schoolgirl!

Da dweeeee da da da dweee dow!

Tag, I'm it!

2007-08-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by Valerie, and must say this is pretty darn cool. Coming up with derogatory words for myself that correspond with the letters of my middle name. This is my kinda game!

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

G - is for Grande. Which I am. A grande, food loving girl.
A - is for Ass. Stupid Ass. Dumb Ass. Lazy Ass. Smart Ass. Wise Ass. I am all of these Asses, wrapped into one big giant Ass. (Zee, I can hear you! "RELAX YOUR ASS!")
I - is for Intuitive. Don't know how to explain it. Many times I know what a person is like just by looking at them. I sense, well, not necessarily dead people, but, things that are supernatural.
L - is for Loath. I'm very stuck in my ways.

Okay, so only the first two letters were derogatory. I gotta be nice to myself at least half the time, right? Right?! Half! Get it?!

And now, it's my turn to tag! Even though they don't have blogs, I'm going to tag:
Zee
Jane
Jennifer
Katherine

I iz kollidge stoodint!

2007-08-14T19:38:00.000-04:00

I did it. I signed up at a 2-year business college to get my A.S. (add another S, I dare ya) in Business Administration with a concentration in Management. Still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up, but this is a start. Only wish I'd done this, oh, 20 years ago?!

The Man took me to a late lunch/early supper on Sunday to celebrate. We went to the Outback, watched the Red Sox game (freakin' Eric Gagne...), ate some Bloomin' Onion, had me some baby back ribs, and between the two of us, we almost finished the humungo slice of chocolate tower cake, or whatever the heck it's called. If you've been to the Outback and ordered it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's insanely good. And rich. Needless to say, we walked out of there ready to burst at the seams, happily carrying home our doggie bag with more than enough left over for dinner Monday night.

----------

Heard the news today about Phil Rizzuto. I remembered this photo we took (below) in September 2005 when we made a trek to the Baseball Hall of Fame to see the Red Sox 2004 World Series exhibit. We both about died laughing when we came upon this "Holy Cow!" in one of the hallways.

Rest in peace, Phil.

Why do I love these things??

2007-08-09T18:08:00.000-04:00

And why do I take the time to fill them out when there are so many other constructive things I should be doing?

It's an illness, I'm tellin' ya.

Stole it from a friend, and some of her answers are so close to what I would say that I just left them!

When's the last time you ran?
Please. Fat girls don't run.

Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them?
Only the ones that were too small.

What are you dreading right now?
Well, I dread work every day. Other than that, nothing at the moment, thank goodness.

Do you celebrate 420?
What?

Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep a night?
Since I started using the CPAP machine, typically I do. What a difference.

If anyone came to your house on your "lazy days", what would ya'll do?
Sit on the couch watching TV or playing something on the X-Box.

Who last grabbed your ass?
The Man.

Have you ever been on your school's track team?
Again... FAT GIRLS DON'T RUN!

Do you own a pair of Converse?
No.

Did you copy and paste this survey?
Of course. I’m too lazy to think one up myself.

Do you eat raw cookie dough?
Mmm... raw cookie dough.

Have you ever kicked a vending machine?
I smacked that thing around like nobody’s business. I wanted my damn Doritos!

Don't you hate it when the radio ruins good songs by playing them over and over?
That’s what they’re in the business for. Isn’t it?

Do you watch Trading Spaces?
Used to. Hildi finally got on my last nerve and I just couldn’t watch anymore. I mean, hay on the walls? wtf is wrong with her??

How do you eat Oreos?
Dunk them in milk for 15-20 seconds, then pop the whole cookie in my mouth.

Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone?
Back in the day, yes. But now I live with him so I don’t have to do that anymore. :-)

Are you cocky?
Man who put hand in pocket... wait...

Could you live without a computer?
Probably.

Do you wear your shoes in the house?
Technically they’re sandals, but yes. And I wear clothes in the house too. Sometimes jewelry!

At what age did you find out that Santa wasn't real?
9 or 10. Mom and Dad sat me down to tell me there was no Easter bunny, and I said something like, “Right, and I suppose there’s no Santa, either?” I was shocked!! Truly, I was very shocked. *sigh*

How many phones, house phones and cell phones are in your house?
3 house phones, 2 cell phones.
...and a partridge in a pear tree...

What do you do when you're sad?
Cry. And eat.

Who would you call first if you won the lottery?
Mom and Dad.

Last time you saw your best friend?
Two weeks ago last night. Hi Zee!!

Who or what sleeps with you?
The Man and the cats.

Are you in high school?
Happy to say I am not.

Is anyone on your bad side now?
Hmmm… sort of. Don’t know that I’d really say she’s on my bad side though. More like she’s on that really short list of people who annoy the living crap out of me every freaking day. I keep praying she'll quit.

What jewelry are you wearing?
Gold oval earrings, peridot necklace and ring, basket weave ring and a watch. Oh, and my braces. They’re shiny, so they’re bling, right?

What's the first thing you do when you get online?
Check email.

Do you watch Grey's Anatomy?
I’d be quite concerned if my anatomy was grey.

How do most people spell your name?
B… e… c… k… y…

Would you wear a boy/girlfriends clothes?
Why? I’ve got plenty of my own.

Where do you work?
A bank. What’s it to ya?

What are you doing tomorrow?
Same thing I do every day, Pinky... But tomorrow evening - woohoo! - it's Doctor Who Friday!!!

Is Justin Timberlake becoming the next Michael Jackson?
Don’t rightly care.

Favorite name for a girl?
Bertha

Favorite name for a boy?
Aloisius

Will you keep your last name when you get married?
Maybe.

When was the last time you left your house?
This morning.

Do you return your cart?
Always. And I always make sure to audibly bitch about the people who are too lazy to do so. Old people are the only ones I will excuse from putting the cart back, and will be more than happy to take care of it for them.

Do you have a dishwasher?
And thank goodness for it.

What noise do you hear?
The air conditioner chugging away in the living room. Some obnoxious children outside.

Would you survive in prison?
Yes. Yes I would.

Who is the youngest in your family?
Immediate family? I am. Otherwise it’s whichever one of my brother’s kids is the youngest. He has 9. I lost track of names after the 4th.

If all of your friends were going on a road trip, who would most likely over pack?
This is exactly why we all coordinate before the road trip, so none of has to worry about over packing. We’re so smart! S-M-R-T!

Do you know anyone with the same name as you?
I know of someone with my name, yes.

What's the last thing you purchased?
Lunch at the 99.

Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you?
When I was much younger, sure. They’d pay for my movie tickets and stuff. But I’m a big girl now!

What brand are your pants right now?
What, they’re magic? The brand is going to change tomorrow? How do they do that?!

Ever been to Georgia?
Rode through it on a train once.

What irritates you most on the internet?
Stupid people.

What brand is your digital camera?
Olympus.

Do you watch movies with your parents?
Sometimes.

What song best describes your life right now?
“What I’ve Done” by Enter the Haggis

Do you own expensive perfume/cologne?
A little bit, yes.

Are you taking college classes right now?
No, but I’m starting next month.

Do you like sushi?
Ack! Hiss! Gag!

Do you get your hair cut every month?
No. More like twice a year.

Do you go online everyday?
Pretty much, yeah.

Bad Kitteh

2007-08-08T06:50:00.000-04:00

Kitteh will not let this much time go by again between blogs!

How embarassing

2007-07-06T06:50:00.001-04:00

Many apologies for the radio silence. Not only has work been so out straight and stressful that I've been nothing but a vapid, drooling blob once I get home from work, but I also forgot my password. How embarrassing. The password situation was, I know, easily correctable, but in my recent state of mind, not so much.

So here I am, 8 days away from my 2 week pass out of hell. Away from the stress. Away from "The Hound". The Hound is my "manager". I use the word "manager" loosely because her management and organizational skills closely resemble those of Colombe (you know, from the Next Food Network Star). Yeah, they're not so good. I interviewed for the management position when it opened. I have management experience from previous positions. Apparently they preferred someone much younger than myself, with no management experience, and who thinks that "management" means she's a glorified baby sitter.

I can't freakin' stand her. There's no way in the world she doesn't know this, no matter how hard I try to be, at the very least, civil to her.

I've already snapped at her several times, and each time I have, she's shut right up. She hounds (hence her nickname), has no back bone, eavesdrops, I could go on and on. It's been a long time since I've had that knot in my stomach every morning because I don't want to go to work. Since she was hired, it's there every morning. I'm really starting to hate my job because of her.

But enough of the bitch fest. Need to go get ready for work.

HAPPY FREAKIN' FRIDAY!!!!!

Because I feel like it

2007-06-07T22:24:00.000-04:00

This meme brought to you by the letters v, a, l, e, r, i and e, and the number 12!

Thanks Valerie! Here's a picture for Elvis that I found on Cheezburger today:

1. Elaborate on your avatar. It's invisible.

2.What's your current relationship status? Happily taken by The Man.

3. Ever have a near-death experience? Meaning my life flashed before my eyes? Yeah, when I was broadsided back in... 2003? I still shudder every time I think about it, and what condition The Man would be in had he been with me, if he'd even survived. Take a look.

4. What is the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? The theme for Johnny Bravo. Haven't seen it in years, yet it just popped into my head and won't go away. Do the monkey with me!

5. Name a celebrity you would marry? Christopher Eccleston. Oh me, oh my. Those eyes. That face. That voice. Imagine waking up to it all every morning. Plus the fact that he's a humble and extraordinary human being. Daaaaaaamn.

6. Who will cut and paste this meme first? *vapid stare* Ummm...

7. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity? Nope.

8. Do you wear a watch? What kind? Yes. It's a solar Citizen's that The Man gave me for my birthday a few years ago.

9. Do you have anything pierced? Just the ears. One in each. Used to be two but they closed up a long, long time ago.

10. Do you have any tattoos? No, but I've thought about it - would love to get a Red Sox 'B' or a Haggis Head. I can't even use an Emjoi "razor", for goodness sake, how the heck would I deal with a needle jabbing my skin for hours on end?

11. Do you like pain? On the whole, no.

12. Do you like to shop? "Shop" is my middle name.

13. The last thing you paid for with cash? Honestly can't remember. My bet is an iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts, though.

14. The last thing you paid for with credit card? More stamping supplies! I need help.

15. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Mom.

16. What is on your desktop background? Babs sleeping peacefully on the living room chair.

17. What was the last movie you watched? History of the World Part I. Groovus!

18. What was the last book you read? Chronicles of Narnia.

My ass is twitching

2007-06-07T06:19:00.000-04:00

"My ass is twitching. You people make my ass twitch."

A ginger molasses (ahem) cookie to anyone who can tell me where that quote comes from. And Zee already knows the answer, but she's getting a cookie anyway. Possibly two. Why? Because she's Zee and I love her! And it's almost her birthday.

And yes, my ass really is twitching.

Went to see a massage therapist after work yesterday. Holy crap. She even went easy on me because I haven't had a massage in a long time. Dad works on my neck and back when I visit, but I haven't seen him since Christmas. I'm crunching and cracking a lot this morning, and am still feeling a bit nauseous. But I feel... better. Not jump up and do the Lindy Hop better, but better. The woman who did my massage last night commented many times on how tight my muscles were. That could've been my cue to air my grievances about work, but I refrained. And after about 5 minutes on the table, I was starting to feel a bit Zen anyway so thought, meh, I can vent about work any old time. And I do. Oh so very much.

No time to vent about it this morning though, and I'm still feeling a bit Zen anyway. Hope that feeling will last the rest of this week!

More later, gotta go. Have a loverly day!

snort grumble... oooh, iced tea!

2007-06-03T15:07:00.000-04:00

The countdown is on. 41 days until I get a 2 week pass out of hell. Since it's the weekend, I don't want to dwell on work right now, so will update in bits and pieces as time allows during the week. Besides, right now I'm a little more livid about something familial than I am about my head-up-her-ass manager at work.

My sister-in-law has got to go. I've disliked her from the get-go. After 22+ years of putting up with the crap and misery she's brought to my family, I refuse to continue to be civil to her or even pray for her anymore after what she's done to my brother. Again. I apologized to my mother last night for my inability to be Christianly toward my SIL, but I just can't do it anymore. If she died right now, I would hoot and holler and jump for joy because my brother would at last be free!

And I need to put a little disclaimer here - SIL hasn't been having extra-marital affairs. But what's been going on over the years is something I'm not comfortable discussing openly in my blog, but I need to get the venom I have towards her out of my system somehow, so please bear with me while I periodically vent about her here without sharing much of the background behind it.

It takes a lot for me to truly hate someone, and I hate her. With every fiber of my being.

Okay, so... in not nearly so venomous news... I ate at the 99 Restaurant twice this past week. Nothing fancy, it's a family restaurant, but dang they've got good food! And I discovered a drink that I may need to start ordering to go, in vats no less. Mango iced tea. Oh my stars, is it good! I'm craving it this very moment. I have some Snapple mango white tea tea bags in the cupboard that I may try to make my own with, but have my doubts about. Oh, and 99's honey mustard dressing is out of this world, too. When The Man and I were there for lunch yesterday, I asked if I could buy some to take home, as it's made by the company itself and not sold in stores, but, no go. So I didn't even bother to ask about the tea. But fortunately I work barely a 1/2 mile from a 99, so guess I'll be stopping by there a little more often from now on. Well, at least while they've got that iced tea. Dang.

Bah

2007-05-30T19:20:00.000-04:00

Sick of work. Sick of people. Sick of everything.

I'm gonna have some ice cream.

Been a while

2007-05-29T06:56:00.001-04:00

Hi there. Yeah, it's me. To the few who actually read my blog, my apologies for falling off the face of the earth. I took Babs's passing pretty hard. Still miss her a lot. Buster was getting neurotic and having separation anxiety every time I left for work, so we adopted a new cat in late September. We named her Lucy. The first picture is, well, the first time they were this close to each other without a resulting smackdown. And it's also the first picture we took of the two of them together. Buster has an air of disdain about him in this picture.

This picture shows how much Lucy likes to snuggle with her people. Whether you have room for her on your lap or not, she will find a way to be on you or shoved up next to you as close as she can.

And now I need to get my butt moving and ready for work. I just wanted to say hi while I had a moment and share a couple of pictures of Lucy. I hope to get into a regular posting habit again.

Hope all is well in everyone else's world.

Have a great Tuesday. :-)

Rest in peace, little girl

2006-08-29T06:47:00.000-04:00

We love you.

May 25, 1997 - August 28, 2006

Be afraid

2006-07-06T23:52:00.000-04:00

You Are 34% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

I want some pancakes.

Sick!

2006-06-29T22:26:00.000-04:00

And it's almost July! Jeez. Almost rescheduled the appointment I had with the doctor this morning. Glad I didn't. I've got a doozy of a sinus infection. All the symptoms have been there for about 2 weeks now, I just never put 2 and 2 together. No wonder I've been so tired and crankier than usual. Took my first dose of antibiotics earlier this evening and am hoping by tomorrow morning that at least the constant splitting headache I've had for the past week will cease to be. And I'm looking forward to not seeing stars every time I turn my head too quick, sneeze or stand up straight after feeding the cats or picking something up off the floor. Oddly enough, it feels like the antibiotics may already be working - the pressure in my head isn't quite as intense right now, I've been sneezing like a madwoman most of the evening (which the cats haven't been too pleased with), and my vision isn't quite so blurry. But unfortunately my stomach doesn't seem too happy with the medication. It'll just have to get over it!

15 days and 1-1/2 hours until the day I'm on vacation. I can hardly wait!

Stress-induced Tourette's

2006-06-22T22:55:00.000-04:00

If it exists, I have it! When my life gets as stressful as it is right now, I swear like a sailor, and sometimes it does feel uncontrollable. Tourette's or no, if my mother heard a fraction of the stuff coming out of my mouth this week, she'd wash my mouth out with soap!

I love my mom. :-)

Speaking of Mom, I was finally able to talk to her about Zachariah this morning. It was the first I'd spoken with her since he passed. We both cried. Again. But this time it was with each other, even if it was only on the phone.

Hey! Our loser neighbors haven't moved out, and eviction day was early last week! Surprised? Me neither!

My fingers are okay now, btw. Just a few little scratches and a torn nail. And boy, does grating those little buggers make your hand cramp! Why was I shredding them in the first place? Well, can't safely bite into a carrot while wearing braces now, can I? And since I don't want the baby carrots to go to waste (because they're so cute, sweet and tasty!), they get shredded into pasta salad, coleslaw or whatever I think they'll be good shredded into/onto. The Man thinks I'm crazy but, hey, takes a crazy to know a crazy!

Tomorrow there will be only 22 (or is it 21?) days until the beach. Talked with one of The Man's aunt's today who goes to the beach the same week we do and she told me she's bringing a ginormous bottle of Irish Creme that she won at a church fair. Now that's funny. And since it was won at a church fair, none of us has to feel guilty if we drink too much of it.

And hey, one of this aunt's mottos is, "Why Not Tourette's?"

And there you have the premise of the insanity that is beach week with The Man's family.

Damn, I can hardly fucking wait!

Dinner

2006-06-20T20:56:00.000-04:00

Have you ever tried to grate baby carrots?

Don't.

26 days...

2006-06-19T19:18:00.000-04:00

...until I'm here:

Right now it feels like an eternity.

Work has been off the wall. I'm so stressed and in such desperate need of time off that I'm forgetting to do things I do every day, forgetting what I'm talking about mid-sentence, and completely over-reacting to idiotic things such as how much spam I get in my work inbox. IT is supposed to be blocking it and they aren't. When my email 'dings!' I check it immediately, and nothing pisses me off more than when I've stopped what I'm doing because of FREAKIN' SPAM!

See?

If I'd been wise I'd have saved the rest of the Cloves I bought for Zee's weekend out here. If I had, I'd be having one... no, three of them right now. And I could really go for a White Russian, but we're out of milk. Besides, The Man is at the Red Sox game tonight and I'm going to need to go out at some point to pick him up from the train station. I feel bad for not going to the game tonight but I'm in no frame of mind to deal with the traffic, the cramped Green Line trains and drunken idiots tonight. Fortunately a guy he works with took my ticket, so it won't go to waste. Sweetheart that The Man can be, called about 5 minutes to 7 and said, "Guess who's starting in right field tonight?" I said, "Gabe Kapler?" He said, "Gabe Kapler" and we both "Woohoo!"'d at the same time. I am SO happy Gabe's finally back in the lineup.

Zee came out last weekend for some birthday Haggis! She's had me and The Man listen to their music a few times when we were back home and I thought, "Ehh, they're not bad." Then I saw them live last weekend and oh my lord, I've turned into a Haggis Head. They're unlike anything I've listened to before and their shows are very energetic. I can not wait to see them again. In fact, the day we were originally supposed to head home from the beach they're going to be playing about an hour from here, but we've already accepted an invitation to go rafting up in Maine that weekend. My arm had to be twisted a bit for that and now I'm trying to untwist it so I can go see Haggis!

Zee, your birthday Haggis was a treat for us both! I'm so glad you were able to come out and I'm so glad we went to both shows. It was medicinal. It was fun. And I can't wait to do it again back home with you next month! :-)

The Sox game is only in the bottom of the 2nd and The Man just called to say he was leaving at the end of the inning. I feel so bad. The guy who was going to go with him bailed. Plus, The Man had surgery on his right eye last Tuesday and he said he can't see what's going on all that well. He still has stitches in the left eye causing astigmatism, and the right eye still has all the stitches in it, plus it's still healing. I'm glad he's coming home early though. If he gets on a train that gets back here before 9 I think I'm going to take him out for an ice cream. There's a dairy farm close to here that has the best ice cream in the world. They have a flavor called Birthday Cake that's fantastic. Add some jimmies and all you're missing is some candles and the embarassing "Happy Birthday" song.

Yeah, I need some Birthday Cake ice cream. More than I need the Cloves. Well, I don't need either, really but... oh hell, yes I do. ;-)

Haven't spoken with my mom since Zachariah passed away. She's having a very hard time with it. I've called several times but my dad has been reluctant to put her on the phone. When I talked with my sister yesterday though, she told me that Mom is starting to consider going to the MSPCA to look around and talk with the folks there. Even before Zachariah passed away, his brother Micah would have separation anxiety from Mom whenever she had to leave the house. It's worse now. She doesn't want his nose to get bent out of joint if she gets another cat, but she doesn't want him to be alone when she has things to do outside of the house.

Well, The Man just called again and is going to be at the train station in half an hour, so if we're going to get some ice cream I'd better go make myself look presentable.

Rest in Peace, Zachariah

2006-06-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

June 10, 1994 - June 9, 2006

I love you, Buhbee.

Christmas 2004

Christmas 2005

Just call me Brace Face

2006-05-25T15:35:00.000-04:00

They're on.

I hate them.

A Friday morning quickie

2006-05-19T07:51:00.000-04:00

Shouldn't we all be so lucky...

::ahem::

The past several weeks in a nutshell - I hope to elaborate more soon.

The Man had surgery on his left eye - he's having contact lenses surgically implanted. It's cool seeing him without glasses. :-) The right eye is being done next month.

I'm finally sleeping through the night with the CPAP machine. It's been about 2 weeks now. Noticing small differences and it's all good. Will definitely discuss this more later.

My nephew J was run over by a garbage truck at work and we're all thanking God he's still alive. He's in tremendous pain though, and has been pretty down the past few days. Wish we could get out there to see him. When the accident happened I was ready to drop everything and head out, but everyone said to stay put. So, planned to head out over the weekend and my father said, "To do what? Stand around in the hospital the whole time? Stay home." So we figured we'd head out this weekend or next, only we found out that our LOSER NEIGHBORS got served a 30-day eviction notice on Saturday (WOO-FREAKIN'-HOO!!!!!!!!!), so aren't inclined to go away overnight until they're gone.

One of my parents cats, Zachariah, has been pretty sick with a tumor. Vets think it's cancerous. Hit me hard because Zack was my baby when I still lived at home. Early last week the vet gave him days. Mom started putting Holy Water in his food. As of this morning, he's been eating, has gained a little weight back, and this morning he caught a mouse! Our prayers have been either he go quickly and painlessly or is cured altogether. Either way, right now he's comfortable and happy, and that's what matters.

Have also become completely enamored with this man over the past couple of months:

He's Christopher Eccleston. I'm now working on a collection of his works. He's currently on Sci-Fi Friday nights at 9 as Doctor Who. And what a fine Doctor he is.

Okay, gotta go run through the raindrops and get my butt to work.

Have a good one!

I smell s'mores!

2006-04-20T19:55:00.000-04:00

Well holy crap. Zee mentioned on Sunday (wait, no, it was Saturday) that'd it'd been a while since I blogged and that I left her (and the only other person who reads this - hi Valerie!) hanging on the water heater issue. I'm so sorry! When I stop and try to remember the events of the past several weeks, almost everything is a blur. The only things that aren't a blur are last night's Red Sox game, the issue The Man and I had a couple of weeks ago (nope, not talking about it - it's done and over with), and going to watch some men's curling in Lowell.

Shiny keys moment - the windows are open and it smells like someone's made a little fire in their driveway to cook up some s'mores or something. It smells incredible. The fire, not the s'mores. I don't know that they're even cooking s'mores. Actually it might be one of the restaurants close to here that does a lot of wood fire cooking so maybe that's what I smell. Either way, it's a comforting smell and I'm totally enjoying it.

Where was I? Oh. Blurry weeks. Yeah. Well, long story short we had hot water again that Tuesday night. One of The Man's friends is a carpenter and came over to knock a hole in the bathroom wall so we could get to the heater. We had hot water not 15 minutes after the hole was made. The plumber (who bears a striking resemblance to my favorite chef, Alton Brown ) dropped by again that Wednesday morning, went over everything with a fine-toothed comb and said he didn't find anything else wrong with it. So, there's a wire in the plug cord thingie somewhere that's a little screwy, but at least we know now that's what it is and have access to the heater now.

Oh yeah, and head-up-his-ass contractor finally called that Wednesday night. We didn't answer the phone (God bless caller ID). Nor did we ever call him back.

Jerk-wad.

Tuesday night we got a couple of late night phone calls from some asshat with nothing better to do with his life. The first was at midnight and we even got a message, the second at 3:15 a.m. The first one startled me so much that I couldn't get back to sleep. When I finally did fall asleep, about a half hour later he called again, let the phone ring only twice this time and then hung up. So I called him back. Apparently he wasn't expecting to get a call back because he didn't answer his phone. Had I been thinking, I'd have grabbed my whistle and left a message that would've given him an internal ear piercing. Thankfully he hasn't called back. But if he does, I'm ready.

I can't remember what else I was going to write about tonight. Hmph.

Surprise!

2006-03-27T21:12:00.000-05:00

Oh what an exciting day it’s been! We woke up to no hot water this morning and no way to get to the hot water heater. The contractors who re-did our kitchen and bathroom a few years ago placed a new hot water heater in our kitchen in the corner, under the counter, and failed to provide a way for us to access it should any problems arise. Can you say, “D’OH!”? The Man has put in 4 phone calls (that I’m aware of) to them and we’ve still had no response. The plumber came and went because he’s not about to pull up our kitchen counter or cut a hole underneath our kitchen sink to get at it, and we certainly don’t blame him. But the plumber’s office called back a couple of times to see if the contractor’s returned our calls yet. If the contractor ever gets around to getting back to us he better a) get to our place no more than an hour after hanging up the phone and b) not charge us for the visit or the access he’s going to provide us to the heater.

Un-freakin-believable.

The Man ended up staying home from work today. He was pretty sick over the weekend anyway and still wasn’t feeling 100% this morning so between that and the water situation, he decided to stay home. If the water situation isn’t rectified by tomorrow, and head-up-his-ass-contractor calls tonight and hems and haws and says, “Oh I’ll be there tomorrow” I’m going to tell him he has to be there on my schedule. No exceptions. No excuses.

Dumbass.

What an adventure it was getting ready for work this morning. Took me back to the days of growing up when our well would decide to not give us any water (the ground was mostly shale around the house I grew up in). We’d have to trek up to the springs to stock up on water, heat it up when we needed to bathe and do dishes, and keep big buckets in the bathrooms so we could flush the toilets. Oh it was just a happy go-lucky time when that happened! I don’t miss those days – and neither do my parents! – and I’m not at all happy about re-living them now.

I’m so angry right now I feel like I could turn into The Hulk.

Grrr, baby! GRRR!

It's Sunday

2006-03-26T07:53:00.000-05:00

Seems as though everything and nothing has been going on. Still pretty busy at work. Last week I finally had a chance to go over all the stuff I've been putting on the back burner and kinda freaked out when I saw how far behind and disorganized I'd become on a few things. I hate that. When someone comes to me and asks about something - where it is or what the status is - I feel like a failure if I don't have an immediate answer, or procure one within two minutes.

I'm a Virgo, and though I don't really believe in the horoscope stuff, I do have to say the characteristics of a Virgo are pretty right on for me.

Which reminds me, my acid reflux is kicking in again. It's been pretty quiet for the past year and a half, thankfully. Called the doctor on Friday to see if she'd phone in some Protonix for me but it hasn't been done yet. Shocking! Meanwhile my stomach will just sit here and rot. That's okay. I don't really need it anyway.

Last weekend The Man and I met up with a friend I've made on a curling forum and took a curling lesson! We had a blast! Curling is something you definitely need to be in shape to do, so it's another kick in the butt to keep me going to the gym on a regular basis because curling is something I want to continue doing.

Next weekend we're going to the World Men's Curling Championship in Lowell. Crossing my fingers we get to meet the U.S. Men - you know, the ones who won the bronze at the Olympics. That has me completely stoked!

Babs is doing well for the most part. She's been off the blood pressure med for 2 weeks now. This past Friday night I was a little concerned as she was breathing faster than normal, but it wasn't labored breathing. Kept our eyes on her and she was back to normal yesterday. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and see what they have to say about it. She's still acting like her normal, crazy self so I know she feels okay.

Sorry this isn't a very compelling entry. Then again, not many of my entries are! Ha!

I'm wanting some french toast, so I'm off to make breakfast. Have a lovely day! :-)

Dumpster fire

2006-03-12T12:42:00.000-05:00

We had a dumpster fire last night. Heard some mighty big vehicles pull up outside of our building last night so of course I peeked through the blinds to see what was up. Two fire trucks had arrived and they were putting on full gear. I got a little freaked, hollered to The Man and he said he already had the scanner on. I saw The Dude from downstairs (the one who took our door mat) standing outside watching them and The Man decided to go out and have a look himself. The Dude told The Man that there were some punk ass kids hanging around earlier (we were in and out all day yesterday so didn't see any of this going on), smoking, going under cars, just generally being stupid, punk ass kids, and that he figured one or more of them must have tossed a cigarette or two in there. I hope whoever set it off is found and has their ass whooped. And their parents, too.

Thank God it was only the dumpster that caught fire.

Some good news - Miss Babs no longer has to take Enalapril!! We took her to the vet in Boston yesterday for her echocardiogram. She still has a little thickening around her heart, but the cardiologist told us that the amount she saw was typical for a kitty of her weight (16.5 lbs.). She told us it would be safe to take her off the Enalapril, and wants us to bring her back in 6 months for a follow-up, just to be safe. YAY! No more medication for Babs! Every night, The Man would get home, change, grab the bottle of pills and give one to her. And every night she'd sit in her bed, squinting at him, waiting for it with a "Screw you!" look on her face. Now she can just be happy he's home and hop into his lap as soon as he sits down.

Being the paranoid cat mom that I am, asked the cardiologist if it was safe to take her off of this stuff cold turkey. She said absolutely and if anything were to happen to her, it wouldn't be immediate, which is why she wants to see her in 6 months. So, I'm not so paranoid anymore. :-)

Just do it

2006-03-07T19:03:00.000-05:00

Did you hear that blood-curdling scream around 5:30 this morning, EST? Yeah... that was me. Sorry about that. I stepped on the scale for the first time in 4 months and have gained almost 10 pounds since the day I had the fibroid removed. I'm not a small girl to begin with. This extra 10 pounds is most unwanted. It does tie in with my sleep apnea, but I have to be able to control what I put in my mouth, too. I'm not going to blame my entire weight problem on my sleeping disorder.

Speaking of which, I went a few nights without using the machine. It just seemed pointless to be using it for only an hour a night. Well, yesterday I noticed that all my little aches and pains were coming back. They were clearing up so slowly I hardly even noticed. So I decided okay, maybe an hour a night actually is accomplishing something and decided to start using it again. As I was plugging the machine in next to the bed last night, the man exlaimed, "Yay! The machine!" I just looked at him and said, "What do you mean 'yay machine'?!" And he said, "Cranky pants." I asked, "Have I been crankier than usual since I stopped using it?" And he said, "Yup". So I'm thinking to myself, "Why the hell didn't you say something?" and then realized this is the man who barely says boo to me while I'm PMS-ing because he knows better, so I didn't make an issue out of it.

But now what to do about finding a food/weight loss plan and sticking to it? I've been on Weight Watchers a gazillion times. Sure it works, until my will power runs out. I've tried L.A. Weight Loss, but much of the food they wanted me to eat was soy based so I quit, plus the staff at the particular location I went to just sucked. I've tried low-carb, no-carb, no sugar. You name it, I've probably tried it. And here I am, still carrying around all this unwanted extra weight. Saying "Just do it" to someone like me will likely get you a punch in the face. And that leads me back to that freakin' CPAP machine. The more I thought about it, the more I noticed as I was using it that my view on exercise was changing. So if I keep using it, hopefully it'll keep changing, as will my view towards food. Guess I just need to give it a little more time.

So here goes.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

2006-03-04T09:58:00.000-05:00

And they ain't kidding!

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant.
Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness.
In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do.

You are unique, creative, and expressive.
You don't mind waving your freak flag every once in a while.
And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Metal mouth

2006-03-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally biting the bullet. I'm getting braces. That's right, Becky's going to have a mouth full of metal in a few short months. Actually, if the quote I received was correct for what I want, I'm getting ceramic braces on the top teeth and metal on the bottom. Not really looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. Really like the orthodontist I met with yesterday. She was much more informative than the others I've been to for consultations. And it's going to be a little cheaper there too, so that obviously helps. I won't have them on until at least May, so I've got time to psych myself up. Or chicken out.

Don't think I ever shared my good news. Had my review at work a couple of weeks ago. Got a 4-1/2% raise and a promotion. It's nice to finally work for someone who appreciates the work I do and rewards me for it. It's about time!!

Meanwhile, the person who took over my old position is finally teetering on the edge of dismissal.

The Olive Garden was packed last night so we ended up going to a place called Smokey Bones for The Man's birthday dinner. It's a barbecue restaurant. Not exactly the place to go on holy days during Lent. I asked The Man, "God's not going to strike me down for celebrating your birthday with a piece of barbecued chicken... is He?" Of course The Man said no, but I still didn't feel right about it. But I was able to work around it. The restaurant offered the typical veggie burger laced with soy so I couldn't eat it (too much soy gives me migraines), and some other meatless stuff that didn't look very palatable. I settled for the "Lodge Salad", minus the sunflower seeds. It had enough protein and fillers without actual meat to make it filling and to my surprise it was one of the best salads I've ever had! And it was huge, so I was definitely full when I was done. The Man got pulled pork and when we got home told me I could have his leftovers for dinner tonight. He can be such a sweetie. When we got home he was too full to have any of his cheesecake, but I wasn't. It was delicious. It's got whipped cream and strawberries on top. Can't wait to have another slice tonight after the pulled pork. I actually snagged a few strawberries off of it this morning for breakfast. Oh, okay! I had a very thin sliver of the cheesecake as well. Jeez. And The Man won't be eating any of it again tonight because he's heading to volleyball (Thursday is league night). If he's not careful I'll have the whole thing gone by the time he gets to it! *insert evil grin here*

It's snowing like a mother out right now. Was hoping it would hold off until the evening commute was over but oh well. We've had it pretty good this winter. Last year we got hammered with snow and freezing cold. This winter has been pretty mild and think we've gotten only 2 snow events worthy of a little freaking out.

Okay, I'm off for some pulled pork and cheesecake.

Cheers!

Happy Mardi Gras!

2006-02-28T20:41:00.000-05:00

Before I begin, even though she doesn't read this (because I know she'd be horrified at some of the things I write in here if she did), I want to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you!

I can't believe the season of Lent is upon us. Ugh! I've given it a lot of thought and decided my Lenten discipline is going to be exercise - 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes per workout. My gym keeps sending postcards saying, "We miss you!" and the owner calls me from time to time to be sure I'm not dead. That and good old Catholic guilt should keep me motivated!

I hate, I repeat, I HATE the CPAP machine. Argh! Still am not getting any more than an hour of sleep per night with it. The nurse called again tonight to see how I've been doing and if I've noticed any differences. Told her I hate it but am willing to keep at it. The only thing I've noticed so far is a week or so ago when I got only about 4 hours of sleep. One of those hours was with the machine. Typically when I get that little sleep, when I wake up the next morning I feel like I've been hit by a truck and I ache all day. This time, there was no ache. I was incredibly tired, but amazingly didn't ache at all. It's still going to be a long haul with this thing though. Right now, when I wake up, if I don't fall back to sleep within 15 minutes it comes off. And if I don't put it on before I go to sleep, The Man always asks, "Aren't you going to wear the mask tonight?" I always grumble when he asks, but he knows as well as I do that eventually it's going to help. A lot. Maybe my new exercise regiment will help move things along. Hmmm...

The Man's birthday is tomorrow. I got him "THE BOOK! Holy Cow!" and Confessions of a Street Addict. Buster and Babs got him Republic Commando. He wants to go to the Olive Garden for dinner, and I really hope they have vegetable lasagna otherwise I won't be able to eat much! He also wants a cheesecake from our favorite pastry store which I need to pick up tomorrow morning.

Speaking of tomorrow morning, I have a consultation with an orthodontist at 9 o'clock. I have a missing tooth that has finally started wreaking havoc in my mouth. My dentist has been after me for two years to get braces to fix everything before it gets worse. Crossing my fingers that I can afford it. Insurance won't cover it. Grrr. If certain areas weren't painful I wouldn't even worry about it, but I have one tooth that's twisted 45 degrees already (that's the one that hurts the most), and several others that are seriously out of whack, so I'd like to get this done before the twists and changes get worse and more painful, and before it starts affecting all the teeth that people can actually see when I smile.

So I'm going to be late for work tomorrow, and I still have to take my lunch break anyway to go to Ash Wednesday Mass. Good thing about that is my boss is probably going to Mass with me!

Over President's Day weekend The Man and I went to The Museum of Science and visited the Star Wars exhibit again. At one point we were near a family with a couple of kids who were completely hamming it up for pictures. One of them stood in front of the Wookies with a completely petrified look on his face. And the youngest boy's pose in front of Darth Vader prompted me to do the same (after asking his Mom's permission to copy his pose!)...

Not very convincing, but silly and fun nonetheless!

Babs' appointment has been re-scheduled yet again! Her appointment is now next weekend. She's still doing great. In fact she's been helping me with this entry. And by helping me, I mean she's holding down my left arm so that a majority of this has been typed with just my right hand. And my right hand is pretty darn tired, so I think I'm going to stop typing now.

Have a great evening!

A month and a half?

2006-02-20T13:43:00.000-05:00

Holy smokes! Can't believe I haven't been here since the very beginning of the year. Suffice it to say, life's been busy. We've been busier than usual at work, what with the opening of a new branch and all. I've been utterly exhausted by the time I get home and haven't had much ambition to do much of anything once I walk through the door. Getting dinner together is a feat in itself these days! That's why it's so nice to have today off. 3-day weekends are always welcome relief.

So... what's been going on... umm... I have the CPAP machine now. It hasn't been easy or fun getting used to it. The first few weeks I battled severe anxiety issues. I was having nightmares about regular people turning into breath sucking demons. Oh sure, it sounds funny now, but it sure as heck wasn't when I was going through it. Am still having a little anxiety with it, but on the whole am much better. The most amount of sleep I've gotten while wearing the mask is 2 hours. A nurse called me a couple of weeks ago to see how I was doing. I was completely honest with her - told her about the anxiety, that I wasn't sleeping well with it, etc. She encouraged me to use it consistently for 3 weeks, even if it's for only 15 minutes a night. She said she would call again in 3 weeks to see how I'm doing and then we'd take things from there. So I've got about another week to go until she calls again. It'll be interesting to see if anything changes between now and then. I'd like to be sleeping an average of 3-4 hours per night with it on.

Let's see... the people across the hall are still flaming assholes.

I'm enjoying the Winter Olympics. LOVE to watch the curling matches. When I was in 5th grade my math teacher told us he played a game called Curling and we all thought he was pulling our leg. The Man and I have been talking and are going to see if there's anywhere around here where we can try our hand at it.

Really digging Volkswagen's Fast commercials.

Babs is doing great. Her follow-up appointment is next Saturday afternoon. She's having an echocardiogram done. They'll probably have to sedate her for it. My poor Sweet Pea. :-( With any luck we'll be able to get her off the blood pressure meds.

Must be off. Buster's treat supply has been depleted and we still haven't heard the end of it from him. Surprised he didn't stomp on our heads all night long.

TTFN!

Starting the year with a bang!

2006-01-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

And by "bang", I mean the word FUCK! It will be used repeatedly in this entry, so if anyone who reads this is offended by the word "fuck", please stop reading now! :-)

I'm so tired of living around FUCKING MORONS! I've decided my New Year's Resolution for 2006 is to utter the phrase "Many of my neighbors are fucking morons" at least once a day. The morons across the hall and the morons directly below us seem to be having a contest as to who can make the most noise and piss off the most neighbors. The morons downstairs started in on Wednesday. The morons across the hall started yesterday. However, in spite of their late start, the morons across the hall are winning by a landslide! Why they feel they need to play their music so fucking loud is beyond me. We can hear it in the bedroom for God's sake. Turn it the fuck down! The condo manager still hasn't sent the letter out about noise pollution and fines. I was hoping she'd be a little better than our last condo manager. Well, I guess she is since the fucking morons across the hall have on the whole quieted down. If their loud music continues past today though, you can bet your sweet bippie I'm going to bitch about it again; and whatever the hell that noise is that's coming from the dude downstairs. I think it's a video game, but I can't tell for sure. Sure as hell don't appreciate hearing it at 11:30 on a work night though.

Okay, I think for the moment I'm done with the word "fuck". But I'm not sure.

I had a revelation the week before Christmas. And remember where you heard it first! *Disclaimer - if anyone steals this revelation from me without asking, you'll be dealing with my minions! And trust me, that won't be fun!*

Okay, now as I share this revelation, you must, I repeat, you must picture me jumping up and down on a couch with a semi-psychotic look in my eyes. Are you ready?

Are you sure you're ready?

Okay, but prepare to be completely horrified...

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' unborn child is the ANTICHRIST!

Of course I have no proof to back up this claim. I only have chills and waves of nausea everytime I think about it. And that's enough, dammit!

IT'S THE ANTICHRIST!!!

Now if they have a boy and name him Damien, well then, that'll solidify everything.

I hope everyone had a truly wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Whatever You Celebrate. I don't understand why we can't just wish those who celebrate Christmas a "Merry Christmas" and those who celebrate Hanukkah a "Happy Hanukkah". This "Happy Holidays" stuff gets annoying. Well, actually, if you don't know what a person celebrates, then "Happy Holidays" is perfectly fine. But if you do know what a person celebrates, then just wish them a Happy/Merry whatever! For several years I worked in an office dominated by Jewish men and women, and none of us had any problem at all showing respect for the others holidays. It was utopia, I tell you! Well, in showing respect for religious holidays, at least.

Ranting and raving aside, I really do love Christmas and the Christmas Spirit. Most people are a little less obnoxious and rude. It's just a magical time of year. And I love being able to spend time with family. We took a few pictures over our extended Christmas weekend that I'd like to share...

The altar at my parents church, decorated for Christmas.

My sister's dog passed out after playing with all the toys he got for Christmas.

My parents cats.

Babs enjoying the new bed Santa brought her.

Buster enjoying the new bed Santa brought him.

The next (and last) picture needs a disclaimer - *If this picture is taken and used anywhere without a link to me or without my permission, you will again have to deal with my minions. Oh will there be pain and suffering.* Actually this is true of any picture I post.

Okay, this isn't a Christmas picture per se, but it was taken this past Tuesday morning as we headed home after a wonderful Christmas visit with my family. The Man and I laughed our asses off when we saw this.

Happy New Year!

Winter sucks

2005-12-12T07:02:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-12-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

Babsie butt!

Buster head!

Cow!

More to come!

Good night!

This begs the question...

2005-11-27T01:15:00.000-05:00

"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

2005-11-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-11T13:59:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-04T07:36:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-30T12:34:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-10-27T07:06:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

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

2005-10-18T07:48:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-10-17T21:51:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-10-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-09-19T18:39:00.000-04:00

...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.

2005-09-16T00:09:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-09-04T15:00:00.000-04:00

...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

2005-09-02T14:59:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-31T16:22:00.000-04:00

"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

2005-08-24T22:10:00.000-04:00

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

All-clear

2005-08-21T15:24:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-15T17:54:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-03T19:17:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-08-03T17:09:00.000-04:00

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...

2005-08-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

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

Mmm... cookies

2005-07-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

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!

2005-07-28T08:59:00.000-04:00

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

2005-07-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

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?)

2005-07-26T21:55:00.000-04:00

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?

2005-07-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

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!

Cats 'n' food. Mmm... cat food.

Where has the time gone?

Well isn't that special?

Awwwww...

She's Alive!

The 80's - my favorite decade!

Best. Super Bowl Commercial. Ever.

Coming up for air

It's tomorrow, today

Amen, sister!

SPOON!

Tag, I'm it!

I iz kollidge stoodint!

Why do I love these things??

Bad Kitteh

How embarassing

Because I feel like it

My ass is twitching

*snort* *grumble*... oooh, iced tea!

Bah

Been a while

Rest in peace, little girl

Be afraid

Sick!

Stress-induced Tourette's

Dinner

26 days...

Rest in Peace, Zachariah

Just call me Brace Face

A Friday morning quickie

I smell s'mores!

Surprise!

It's Sunday

Dumpster fire

Just do it

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Metal mouth

Happy Mardi Gras!

A month and a half?

Starting the year with a bang!

Winter sucks

Pictures!

This begs the question...

Gobble Gobble

Another quick update

Quick Update

Sweet Pea

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

Quotables

Hisssss!

Ahoy-hoy!

Inquiring minds want to know...

Just crabbing. Nothing exciting.

Have you ever...

Harry

They say it's your birthday

Hope this works

All-clear

Asshole magnet

Spam boobs

Damn boob

WHOOPEEEEE!

But...

Mmm... cookies

Sweet nectar of the Buffalo gods!

Deadbeats and refrigerators

Fonts, pictures and visits (oh my?)

Where did the time go?

snort grumble... oooh, iced tea!