Some day: ramblings because I don't want to be awake

I woke-up too early today worrying about Flurry and whether or not I gave them the right key. I'm sure they could have found our numbers somehow and Flurry actually would probably have enough water and could break into the food bag. But... now I'm awake. Well, sort-of awake. I don't really want to be awake.

Yesterday we went to Ft. Myers Beach. I love that Ben was willing to read with me in the shade. I just burn/get too hot too easily.

We've had a problem getting good waiters...last night he was fine but they seated three large groups at once so it was slow again. I guess there was one other time the waiter was good, but I found words in my food on some paper so that still possed a problem.

Yay hottub. I love warm water.

I had a drink yesterday. One with alcohol. And pineapple. It was fine. Not great, but I did drink most of it.

Congrats!!

Travis and Allison got engaged! Woo-hoo!

The next morning, looking at my blog:

Opening a coconut:

Some day: relaxation take 3

Uh, we relaxed more today. Jacob and Ashlyn left. :(

We went to the Melting Pot for dinner. The food was delicious, the waiter left quite a bit to be desired. We think he was watching the football game in the back instead.

Friday: Dad's birthday

Happy Birthday Dad!

Allison got thrown in the pool at night too...

More blanket pics

Thanks to Dad for taking these...

Some day: more relaxation

Today we went took a boat ride to a island, ate at the Bubble Tea restaurant, and went to the beach.

~We were in the boat and Ben opened a secret window and grabbed Travis' ankle. We then hid and Travis was very confused. :)
~We got shells at the beach. I get to add them to my vase when I get home. If I can find it. Ben picked up one shell and then immediatly when "AAAGGHH" and threw it away from him...it was still alive.
~The desserts at the restaurant were really good. I think I'm a bit addicted to sugar.

Some day: relaxation

Well, today was one of those great relaxing days. I'm quickly working my way through all the books I brought, so I'm glad that I brought so many this time. Oh, I read and played some Super Mario Party this morning, got some cute sandals this afternoon, relaxed some more in the afternoon, and hid a bunch of plastic army men around the house. Possibly to the chagrin of some people, but to the delight of others.


My niece, nephew, and dad-in-law:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Today was a very nice day...we opened presents, ate a lot, played in the pool, took a walk.

Christmas Eve - Michigan Christmas

Hello! Well, we had a wonderful time in Michigan spending time with my family. We did a lot of relaxing and reading, but it was also just nice to see everyone.

Some highlights...
~I got to see Hanneke and Aunt C.
~Nathan and Liz made Pad Thai for dinner
~I finally got to give Dad the blanket that I've been working on forever.
~The power was out for five hours. Luckily they have a fire-place type thing.
~We managed to get all our flights to Florida even though the power was out at airport 1 and we had a 39 minute layover. We had to run (again), but we made it.

More pictures are here.

Thursday: We made it!

We made it to Michigan without any problems. The first flight was late, but we had a long lay-over so it didn't really matter.

Yay family!

Poll

Oh! My poll finally finished. There was a big surge at the end. 16 people do (or don't) read it. I'll admit...that is a lot more than I was expecting. Sweet.

Wednesday: Last work day

Ah, the last day of work. It consisted of hurrying up and trying to get stuff finished that I've been ignoring for too long. Good times. Everyone was in a weird mood around 4pm. I don't feel completely comfortable around them yet, but it was fun to watch them horse around.

My missing badge was found today. It turns out that Ben lost it. Phew, I thought my memory was going. He put it in the laptop bag while the car was getting some work done and then forgot about it. Even though together we tried to figure out where it might be and I even mentioned the car place. Oh well. I had needed to get new badges anyway because my status changed.

I'm feeling a bit anxious about traveling tomorrow. This is the longest layover that we have though and the weather looks good, but I'm still nervous. I also don't understand why we need to check in an hour early to a regional airport. Big ones or busy ones, yeah. But I don't think this is either. And what happens if we're late? In champaign the ticket people disappeared...would that happen here? I don't think I've been this nervous about traveling in a while. :(

Yesterday was a work Christmas party. I thought we were going to have way too much food and that I'd have chex mix to bring home, but most of it seemed to disappear by the end of the day. Maybe because second shift came in.

Monday: Program release

Hmm, well the majority of the day involved training and fixing bugs and adding features to my program. While it still has some quirks, it should be pretty useable. Tomorrow I'm going to try and stay away from the programming because I have a lot of other stuff I need to do.

Hmm, the funny thing of the day was when the IT guy took control of my computer to show me how to make a shortcut. I had put it a help ticket because I thought he could put the shortcut on a lot of profiles. Once that was sorted out it didn't matter anymore, but he proceeded to show me how to make a shortcut anyway. *sigh*

Sunday

Well, we didn't get as much snow as predicted. We got about an inch last night which froze with some sleet (that was fun to shovel) and then another inch or two today. It was snowing last I looked, so probably a few more inches tonight...but nothing close to the 12+ that was predicted.

Nothing else really interesting happened today, but I'm tired so I'm going to go read in bed.

Saturday: yay doctors

Well, the biggest news around here is that Ben got an ingrown fingernail which proceeded to get infected. But because of this, we found out that there is now a walk-in clinic in Owego.

We're still expecting a lot of snow tomorrow...

Thursday: Death by snowplow

Well, today was a day governed by snow. I usually get a ride into work on Thursdays, go to a meeting, get a ride into the other work location, go to a meeting, grab the car, and go back to the first site.

Ok, now that the back story is done, we between getting to the first meeting and leaving about 2 inches of snow fell (in 2 hours). Everyone was going really slowly and a ton more was predicted. I decided to just stay at the second location and camp out at a computer there (it's closer to home). Around 1:30 there's an announcement that work isn't canceled as it is supposed to stop at 3. At 2 I finshed some monatonous work and went to Ben's desk to borrow a dollar since my purse was back in the first place. I get to raid his christmas party leftover instead and eat way too much sugar. By 4 a ton of people have left. Ben and I decide to leave. I feel a bit funny about it because I'm kind of baby-sitting to hot orders, but the status was that they weren't going to be done until tomorrow anyway.

We brushed off cars, got wet socks, wondered about some green stuff in the snow under our car, picked up some extra antifreeze and got home behind slow traffic. Our road wasn't plowed yet. Ok, we decided to hurry up and shovel out a patch on the driveway so the car wouldn't get plowed in. (oh, the snow is 6-8 inches now and it is 5pm and hasn't stopped.) We get half a car patch and see a plow. Bother. It turned the other way. phew. We almost have a car sized area shoveled. It turned around. Hurry! Get to the car! Oh no, a plow the size of a large elephant is rapidly coming up the hill. It can't stop or it will lose momentum. Ben just got in the car. Oh, the car started. The plow is almost here. The car takes off, just in front of the plow. Phew. Quickly! Finish the car sized area! Here's the car! It pulls in. The snowplow comes the otherway down the hill. The car is safely in the driveway. Death by snowplow avoided.

Ok, keep shoveling. Maybe we should get a snowblower. Maybe we should have asked for one for Christmas. Well, at least it's good excersize. Amanda gets to the end of the driveway. She decides end of the driveway snow is meant to break people's spirits. Her arms feel funny. Ben's back hurts. If only they could trade, they'd have one good shoveling body. Ben does about 1/4 of the driveway while Amanda does the dumb end of the driveway. Amanda gets most of it done but Ben has to finish it. Its amazing how light the other snow is now. The snow stopped around 6pm. Amanda's back sweat made her cold. She turned on the electric blanket early to help warm her toes.

Amanda apologizes for the person switching in the middle of the talk, but she enjoyed it so that's all that matters.

Wednesday: Carolers

We had some carolers tonight! It was fun. A bit awkward because I was in pajama type pants, but oh well.

I also have to retract my statement about gum drops on gingerbread roofs. It tastes really good.

Oh, there was something else I was going to say but forgot it. Oh well.

I couldn't help myself

and I'm dead and on a ridiculsly long run-back.

Next year at this time we will own 1.49 sq ft / month. That's almost more disappointing that the 1.38.

Monday: Opps

Well, I was looking through old blogs and noticed someone that had computed how much more house they owned every month after paying the mortgage...cool I thought. We own...


drumroll...


1.38 sq ft per month.

Well, at least we're over 1 sqft. I think so far we've bought my side of the bed. I kind of want to calculate it for a a year from now and see how it changes, but maybe I'll try and keep that excitement for later.

In other news, my programs are still working and might have a second application in another project. The day went quickly. I had a nice talk with my dad.

3 months:

Sunday

Well, we made it to church today. The assistant pastor gave the sermon, and it was pretty good. He also seems to be our age, and finally said hi and invited us to a small group. So we might try that out this week.

I hate getting to the end of Sunday and still having a ton of chores to do. It makes me so depressed. I'm about to raid and will probably have some time after that, but we'll see how much I actually feel like doing. I really think something needs to change so that we can get the chores done and some house projects.

Although, we'll see if this raid actually happens. We're missing a healer and someone just stole Bel. (Steven...) Speaking of WoW, I have a mining problem. All the other gathering professions level up pretty well with your level, but mining always seems to be a problem. I'm so far behind now that I need to do loops around The Hinterlands with Lydian. I think something should be changed.

For your picture enjoyment, I present the following. It isn't actually Flurry, but reminds me of her a lot.

Saturday: ramblings

While making gingerbread houses was fun last night, Ben and I realized we need to put more thought into what we are using to decorate. For example, instead of using gum drops for the roof (which we only kind of like), we should have used m&ms (which we really like). Ah well, live and learn. The house tastes really good though.

*Later* I was just getting ready for a party we're about to go to across the street and thinking about all the things I wanted to say. Nothing important. Things like...
1) We started cleaning the walls of the house for real today. Of course, we really only did the closet of the room that no one goes into. It took us 15 minutes or so. We're going to have to step it up to get the whole house done in a reasonable time frame.
2) I love the fact that my dryer dries the clothes before the washer finishes. I don't love the fact that the washer said that liquid fabric softener is not recommended, because I always forget to put the dryer sheets in.
3) I was stalking Kassia and Amras on her blog today. It's so interesting to learn about your on-line friends' real lives. For that matter, it's interesting to learn their real names. Pretty much everyone's name doesn't seem to fit. Maybe that's because I'm used to their on-line name.
4) Doing that made me wonder how many people actually read this. How many people made the transition from livejournal to here? The nice thing about livejournal is the friends page...everyone in one spot. I found I also like this site because I can e-mail my entries to myself and keep them forever. Ha. Probably in 20 years we'll be onto a new medium and I'll have to figure out what to do. That is the nice thing about paper journals. Or maybe someday we'll actually get a printer instead of just talking about it (hint, hint) and I'll print them out sometimes. Anyway, I might put up a poll...do you read this blog? on the side. We'll see how many responses I get. Kim had a hit counter. I looked for that but didn't see an easy one to add. I kind of feel...self-centered by doing so because I want to see how popular I am, but oh well. I did it anyway.
5) My hair has reached the "too long" phase. The problem with it is that I'm about 1-2" away from having enough for locks of love. And it wouldn't feel very loving to give up at this point when I'm so close. But the dumb hair is so snarly! I curled two ...strands? hunks? clumps? bunches? of hair today. I thought it would look cute...I did it several months ago. It didn't. It looked dumb. More so because I didn't curl the rest of my hair. Which I only do if I'm in a wedding because otherwise it takes just way too long. Usually the back gets somewhat skipped. I can't see it, so who cares? At that point its also been 30 minutes and I've lost interest and the heat is gone from the iron.
6) I killed the first little boss in Super Mario Galaxy. I died a lot before getting it, but I figured it out all by myself so I'm still rather proud.
7) I hate cankersores. I currently have two. I think they are from the chex mix...the topping is made from lemon juice. It could be from the OJ I had last weekend though. The saddest part is that my special medicine is getting close to gone and my special doctor friend isn't nearby to give me another one. Maybe I'll have to make sure I get some before my next doctor's appointment so that they'll give me more. It's so sad that they're so predicable and yet I still get them. Some food is just too good to pass up though.
8) I finished emptying the last unplaced box today. (A placed box is one that has been put in a room but is waiting for furniture before its unpacked.) Yay!
9) It's kind of nice being across the street from the house that is having the party...you can make sure that you aren't the first ones there :)
10) I'm running out of ramblings, but might as well keep typing until its time to go.
11) A friend from high school got married yesterday. I was so sad that I couldn't make it to her wedding, but it was just too far away. I hope everything went well.
12) I'm wearing a lot of pink tonight. Pink isn't my favorite color, but I do like to wear it. I think it makes me feel cute.
13) There's still no one across the street. Soon we'll need to go anyway. It's a work party. I wonder how many people are supposed to be coming. I need to remember to ask them if their daughter wants to Cat-sit over Christmas.

Friday: Gingerbread houses

Well, I got the program I mentioned up and running yesterday. I then went and talked to everyone to make sure they started using it, as some people seemed...reluctant. It's pretty easy to use though, so several people were pleasantly surprised.

In the evening we made gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun. All the pictures can be seen here.

Ben even made a Flurry for the window:

Thursday Thursday

Good evening!

Today I almost finished part 1a of program two. This part is really important because the old file they were using to log the data got corrupted or something, and so there's been no way to track where the tools are which ends up wasting a ton of time. I have a few minor changes that need to be made, but it's been tested and is pretty much ready to be released.

I'm sad that I'm not posting more pictures. But I'm in a raid, so here is what I see when I'm doing that...

Tuesday: Car blessings

A blessing in disguise: only having one car when it snowed a lot out. It means you only have to shovel half the driveway before work.

It was supposed to snow 1"-3" last night, and it was up to 3" by about 10pm....we estimated 6"-8" last night and we are getting some great snow piles at the end of the driveway. We also noticed that there was a largish animal around our house today due to the tracks. I wanted to put up a picture of our snow, but it is too dark to take a pic.

The program I've been writing was released today. So far only minor bugs that I've already been able to deal with.

There was cake at work today. It was really good, so I had two pieces.

I hate how when you work outside you get cold but then once you come inside you get really hot

Monday: Work

Well, I have a slightly sore back now too. But it is my upper back, so not too bad.

I was going to start training people on how to use the program I keep talking about today. Of course, this computer decided to do something weird so I had to cancel.Every other computer seems to be ok, but the one I was using was a butt. Luckily, Ben saved me today (belated thanks to Dusty for saving me earlier). I rescheduled the meeting and we'll see how it goes tomorrow...

Sunday: Snow

We woke up to a lot of snow. And since we're not sure it's going to melt, we had to shovel it. Well, we only shoveled half the driveway because we don't really use the other half. But then Ben slipped and hurt his back stabilizing himself. :( So we didn't go to church. But even though I know we need to find a church family the whole search has been a little disheartening and I wasn't really all that sad.

But I did make chex mix (thanks to Liz and Nathan for prompting me to do so). We also watched "blood diamond" which was good but really sad. I can't imagine going into villages and killing everyone. It just blows my mind.

Amtrak

Sigh. I was hoping that Amtrak might be a feasible option to go home sometimes. However, it takes over 24 hours to get to Holland because of a huge (12 hour) layover in Chicago. :(

Saturday: clean garage

Today we relaxed a lot and cleaned the garage. There were a few boxes that still need to be dealt with and a lot of stuff that needed to be moved to the basement. (We won't talk about how neat or not neat the basement is right now.) Two of the boxes with misc. stuff got moved to the living room so they wouldn't be forgotten about. One has been emptied onto the kitchen counter, which means we only have one more box to deal with. We don't have all the boxes empty yet, but that is due to a lack of furniture right now.

In other news, Flurry finished her Thanksgiving leftovers today. She was kind of sad.