homefryes’ ramblings

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:25:38 GMT

Happy birthday, bonnie_halfelvn! Your card may not arrive today ... and it's like a box of Cracker Jack (i.e., a little "surprise" inside)! *hugs* Love ya!

A friend lost

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:29:06 GMT

Hi ... do you remember me? I know I post WAY to infrequently here. I've been busy doing other projects and really haven't felt like I had anything interesting to say. I need to do better, I know, especially since I now have something to share. Forgive me for not doing a "cut;" I didn't want to hide it.

Motorcyclist fatally struck by car; cops say other driver painting nails (Daily Herald article)
Driver Painting Nails Hits, Kills Motorcyclist (KDKA News Article)
(this is international headlines due to the bizarre and senseless circumstances surrounding it)

Nail Polish Car Crash

My friend, Anita Zaffke, was an independent thinker, outspoken, an idealist, passionate, and a risk taker.

"Independent thinkers are analytical and witty people. They are normally self-confident and do not let themselves get worked up by conflicts and criticism. They are very much aware of their own strengths and have no doubts about their abilities. People of this personality type are often very successful in their career as they have both competence and purposefulness."

"Outspoken people are given to expressing themselves freely or insistently; they are characterized by directness in manner or speech and without subtlety or evasion."

"An idealist is a person who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.; a person who represents things as they might or should be rather than as they are."

"Passionate people are characterized as having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; expressing, showing, or marked by intense or strong feeling; intense or vehement, as emotions or feelings."

Anita had achieved many successes and pursued many goals, particularly in recent years. She earned her Bachelor's degree; she had begun writing a book; she learned how to ride a motorcycle; she pursued her hobby as an amateur photographer; and she took cross-country trips to fulfill her wishes to see and photograph some of the magnificence that this country has to offer. She was outspoken and idealistic about perceived political and social injustices in this country and the world, and passionate about her feelings about such issues.

Finally, "A risk taker is someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement." I take exception to this definition. Surely many people feel that those who choose to ride motorcycles are risk takers, but that's not the only thing that Anita did that I feel garners this distinction.

Ten years ago, there was this young man who was making a career change. He had years of restaurant and retail management experience and possessed self-taught computer skills, but he had no experience working in a corporate office setting. He went to four job placement agencies and tested well on the programs, but no one was able to find him a suitable position. He finally went to a fifth agency and, a couple days later, he received a call that someone was interested in interviewing him. That was ten years ago this week that I first met Anita, interviewed with her, and was subsequently hired for the position she was tasked with filling. Under Anita's wing, I learned the ins and outs of being an administrative assistant at a large company. For many years, I worked closely with her as our friendship grew. I still work for that same company, and I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend Anita who, ten years ago, took a risk on me and put me on the road to success.

Today isn't about me ... it isn't about the woman whose act of negligence took our friend - wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt - away from us too soon ... today is about Anita, whom many cherished and loved. "Life is short." We've all heard that over and over again ... but why do we need incidents like this to remind us? We should all take a lesson or two from Anita's life and maybe become a bit more independent in our thinking, more outspoken about our ideals, more passionate about our beliefs, and maybe even take a few risks. Life is for the living, after all. So live your life ... enjoy your life ... don't wait until tomorrow to do something you've always wanted to do. There may not always be a tomorrow.

-- Don

what am I doing?

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:02:28 GMT

Okay, so I'm posting this publicly, not because I think most of you will necessarily be interested in my project, but mainly so that you all know I'm alive and well ... and this project has been consuming a lot of my free time! Also, for my mom who likes to know what her kids are doing! (Hi, Mom!)

I've mentioned my enjoyment for SimCity4 a long time ago. While reading through some forums and projects recently, I stumbled across something that sparked my interest dealing with creating items that can be plopped in the game. I realize that probably means nothing if you haven't played the game. Long story short, I'm creating ploppable utility poles. Yes, I'm a geek ... but aren't we all?! Anyway, I've basically started in the third phase of my project. Phase 1 was creating the items in a 3-D tool called the Building Architect Tool -- we refer to the creations as BATs. Phase 2 was creating the icons that show up in the game's menu. Phase 3 is converting all of my BATs (over 300!) into ploppable items for the game.

So I just wanted to post a couple pics to show my very first ploppable BAT, which is a 3-wire distribution pole. These are in-game screen shots I did as a test (the building is the game's default library):

I forgot to turn off the game's grid before snapping the pictures!

— D.

Sentencing in Gina Tenney murder trial

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:04:01 GMT

I don't want to get into a discussion here about the death penalty and whether you, my friends, support it or not. I simply wanted to post a link to the article which outlines the sentencing of the man who murdered my friend Gina nearly 23 years ago:

Adams execution date set for March 2, 2009 — The Youngstown Vindicator, published Thursday, 20 October 2008

follow-up to previous Gina Tenney post

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:27:43 GMT

Wow – it's been a year and three days since I posted this about my friend from high school who was murdered in December 1985. I am thrilled to report that her suspected murdered has been found GUILTY! Next is sentencing (life or death). Pray that the right decision is made!

— D.

Note: typo in the article; it should read 23 years, not 33 years

interesting video

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:13:06 GMT

I found this last week on youtube, and mainly wanted to share it with Dad, but others may find it interesting as well. A disastrous power surge in 1988 in Harford County, Maryland, lasted for more than 15 minutes when a professional tree trimmer cut a branch that subsequently fell onto 33kV power lines and shorted them out to 13kV lines below, causing significant damage to houses in the neighborhood. This video has been edited for time, but has an embedded timeline.

You have to wonder why (a) a circuit breaker didn't trip in the power grid or (b) why it took so long for the power to be manually cut! Amazingly the only reported injury was one of the workers who suffered flash burn to his eyes. The amateur videographer's footage was used on the subsequent news reports:
Harford County Power Surge Part 2
Harford County Power Surge Part 3
These have some bad video editing in between news reports, but are still good. Part 3 features an interview with the woman who owns the house that was shown with the gutters arcing.

— D.

time flies when you're having fun?

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:31:10 GMT

Okay, my mom says I need to post something because she's tired of seeing my last one from March! It's just been an uneventful year, I guess. Spring was long, summer was short (and not hot enough for my liking), the fall has been wet, and now winter is just around the corner. Bleh!

Vacations never last long enough, either. I took off last week Thursday through today. Over the weekend, R & I headed east to visit my family in PA and also take in the 25th Annual Ashtabula County (Ohio) Covered Bridge Festival. The county, where all of my family grew up, boasts 17 covered bridges including the newly-completed longest covered bridge in the United States! I have posted pictures at photobucket. If you're interested in more detailed information on the bridges, you can peruse the Wikipedia articles, all of which were originally created by me.

The remainder of this week has been spent running errands, preparing for a chapter meeting (International Association of Administrative Professionals) for which I am treasurer, seeing the doctor for a check-up, doing laundry, and going through the hundreds of pictures I took to edit and post the good ones for public viewing! I can't believe I have to go to work Monday already.

— D.

ouch!

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:00:04 GMT

I went to the dentist Friday afternoon for a routine cleaning ... came out with both upper wisdom teeth filled! My mouth is NOT amused!

vacation wrap-up

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:20:46 GMT

Okay, I know I've been home a couple days now, but I'm still trying to get caught up ... on sleep! Having been through 3 time changes in the course of a week, I'm still having trouble getting up to speed! Plus I wanted to get the pictures ready to share first, which I did yesterday (and just tagged them this morning). I'll share a couple of them here, and you can view the entire collection at your leisure.

We had an enjoyable time ... we did not come back "up," but that's just the way it goes I guess. We were upgraded to a Sebring convertible, though it was really too cool to bother putting the top down! We had a delay checking into the hotel (Palace Station), as our discount online travel agency (Hotwire) neglected to push the reservation through to the hotel! While I sat on hold with Hotwire (for probably 20 min. or so), R managed to get us upgraded to a tower room, which was a feat, considering we were staying through the weekend. The tower rooms were recently renovated, and come complete with a 42" flat screen TV ... not that we were planning on spending much time watching it! The alternative to the tower rooms are the garden rooms, which are cheaper and not as nice; they are on the east end, and on one level surrounding the pools.

The week was spent going to various casinos, some sightseeing around town, and visiting with R's kids. We didn't venture out of town this time. We'll wait until the bridge construction at Hoover Dam is done before going back out there. We went to a few different casinos, but by far our favorites were Suncoast and Sam's Town, both of which are Boyd Gaming establishments. Suncoast is near the western edge of the city, way off-strip, and Sam's is on Boulder Hwy. southeast of town. We found we prefer the off-strip places better than the fancy places on the strip. They just have a more relaxed feel. Both of these places have great buffets; Suncoast's was really beautifully done (and had some of the best New England clam chowder I've ever had). I had hoped to get out there Sunday for brunch, but we just didn't make it. We did have brunch Saturday at Sam's. We neglected to get pictures of the grandkids this trip (oops!); we met up with R's boys, Adam and Scott, and the grandkids, Cody and Jordyn, Friday at Suncoast for bowling; on Saturday, we met up with Scott, Adam and Nicole for dinner at P.F. Chang's; and Sunday, we all met at Nicole's place of work, GameWorks, for food and fun. Here's a link to the entire photo album for this trip.

There's probably stuff I'm forgetting to write about, but that's all I can come up with right now (my brain is not fully functional yet)!

D

farewell to Wicke's Furniture

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:58:25 GMT

Reminder: I'll be away from LJ for about a week starting tomorrow. We get back late Monday evening, so I won't be back on until Tuesday at the earliest.

Our favorite furniture store (where we bought our dining room set and living room sofa and loveseat) is closing. We are so totally bummed. We almost went back on my resolution to not put any major purchases on long-term credit for this year! The clearance sale began Saturday, and I decided we should have a look-see. After seeing the crowds on Sunday, I'm betting there will be nothing left by the time we get back from Vegas; nothing good, anyway. We've had our eyes on a particular dresser in their clearance center for a long time (they had more than one of this model). They still had three there on Sunday, and nicely priced. But being as the liquidation sale is being managed by a sell-off company, the Wicke's credit card is no longer a valid form of payment. Oh well! I didn't want to put it on anything else, so we didn't get it. I guess we'll just have to survive with what we have (I'm sure we'll manage).

things

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:30:34 GMT

I realized I now need to find all of my digital devices that aren't programmed for leap year and reset the date to the 1st! Plus I now have an analog wrist watch with date that I have to set after every month with fewer than 31 days (haven't had one of those in eons!).

I don't know if you're an American Idol fan or not, but if you haven't seen David Archuleta all over TV lately, you probably haven't been watching Fox or any entertainment programs! This was his performance on Tuesday 26 Feb:

I have heard that he has a "lazy" or paralized vocal chord, which is why the slight gasping sound when he takes his breaths, so it's apparently something he cannot help. What an amazing voice and moving performance! Just felt the need to share this, in case you weren't watching the show.

We're going up to a friend's (former co-worker of mine) house today; she and her hubby are updating some lighting fixtures, and asked if I'd put them in for them. I installed ceiling fans for them a few years ago.

On a sad note, the wife of a cousin of R's passed away yesterday. She has been ill for at least 6 months now. I know the cousin is taking it very hard though. Will be interesting to see if I can get to any visitations or even the funeral and not miss too much work before our trip (if it even occurs before our trip). I can't afford (work-wise) to take much time off, as I have so much to do. I may have to log-in tomorrow and get a jump-start.

[Edit]
And, btw, 3 weeks yesterday no smoking!

happy leap day!!

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:24:13 GMT

So, R finally caught up with his kids. He talked to his elder son, who had D-i-l's cell number. He then talked to her the next day. She apologized for not keeping up the communication; she said early last year, she told her husband (R's younger son) that he needed to start calling his dad instead of her; well, obviously that didn't work! I don't think R cares who calls...just CALL! LOL! They're just "typical men" who don't think to pick up the phone once in a while.

She can get us tix for the shows at Planet Hollywood; they have quite a few that look interesting. So you know, I will be away from LJ while in Las Vegas (5-10 March); no free Wi-Fi access at our hotel, and I doubt I'll go hunting any down! Still, it would be nice to sip my morning coffee and do my vacation posts real-time, as well as keep up with everyone else's. Oh well!

Goin' to Vegas!

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:08:17 GMT

R & I decided we deserved to go on a little vacation! So we're flying out the morning of 5-Mar, returning 10-Mar in the afternoon. We plan to do some of the sightseeing that we didn't get to do last time (because we got sick!). Plus catch up w/ the kids since we haven't heard from them in like 9 months!!

-- EDIT -- ...and they don't answer their phones!! (just to clarify that we have tried to contact them)

Things 'n' stuff

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:00:49 GMT

Wow...things are quiet here at LJ lately (among my f-list)! I too have been busy with other things, and there hasn't been much going on otherwise. Just a few items of note.

One tidbit I forgot about in my previous catch-up post was that I wound up with a flat tire coming home from R's brother's the night of the 1st. Turned out to be a screw, about 1¾" long! Who knows where I got it; it's not the first time I've picked something up when there's been major snow, and we had a lot that morning. So Saturday, after I did my taxes, I took R's truck, got a can of Fix-a-flat, and put it in my tire; limped to Firestone and they said they wouldn't fix a tire that had Fix-a-flat in it! NICE! R called around and found a hole-in-the-wall tire shop in town that said they would ... and they did, for a whopping $15! Beats the heck out of paying for a new tire!

Valentine's Day – R made his world-famous (okay, maybe not world-famous, but it should be) spaghetti sauce ... with heart-shaped meatballs! LOL! If you're a romantic, you're thinking, "how sweet;" if you're not, you're thinking, "oh, barf!" His spaghetti has become a Valentine's tradition for us, and it was good as usual!

If anyone has a Facebook profile and wants to "friend" me there, let me know and I'll privately post my email here. So far I'm up to 8 friends, some of whom are people from my college years with whom I had lost contact years ago ... so that's pretty neat! Also friended a cousin, Thad (Ralph's son) in Columbus!

On a final note, R and I are 11 days smoke-free! That's right! I think we have it down this time, although I'm having a rougher time this week at work than I did last week; and it's strange since I'm not particularly stressed-out this week. Hopefully the anxiety will pass ... and SOON! Not experiencing it at home so much, so it's really strange. I'll just sit here and eat Tic Tacs the remainder of the day!

Going through another really cold snap here ... hoping that will pass soon too! And hopefully will catch some of the lunar eclipse tonight!

Catching up!

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:53:52 GMT

Okay, I know I have been seriously delinquent in posting. It's been a crazy past few weeks! I'll try to synopsize as much as possible.

18-22 January
I used up the last of my vacation for the year (ends 31 January); combined with MLK Day, I made a nice 5-day weekend! We went and played cards w/ some of his family that Saturday, and other than that, we were pretty lazy all weekend. It was nice!

26-28 January
R and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary by using gift cards I got for Administrative Professionals (formerly known as Secretaries) Day last April! We went to a nice steakhouse. I had things that he doesn't like, such as grilled salmon, baked sweet potato, and peanut butter pie for dessert! He had the prime rib, mashed potatoes, and pecan pie. Frankly neither of us was terribly impressed. High-end restaurants these days make you pay for the vegetable or salad! You pay $18-$30 for your entrée and you don't even get a house salad or steamed broccoli on the side without paying extra? Ridiculous! We still ended up shelling out $25 of our own money on top of the $75 in gift cards! It was good, but I wouldn't rave about it, really.

Monday we had a nice dinner at home for the official day.

Last week in January
I put in more extra hours this week; got snowed-in on Friday the 1st (about 8") and worked from home. A couple of interesting stories broke about my company potentially spinning off the cell phone division, which internally we're calling rumors and speculation. Not really sure what to make of it, but for now I just keep my nose to the grindstone! A late afternoon conference call w/ my boss and her entire team spawned the need to set up two online broadcast meetings for the following Monday and Tuesday! That precipitated my having to do some work to set those up over the weekend. The snow had ended by noon, and R & I thought we might zip down by his brother's (and take advantage of traffic being light due to the morning snow) and go to the VFW fish fry, but I ended up working until nearly 5:30, so we just went there for pizza and cards instead w/ his brother and Ma.

2 February
Ma's 78th birthday was actually Sunday the 3rd, but since everyone (but us) had Super Bowl plans, R's brother decided to have the party Saturday. She kept saying Friday night that she didn't want a big to-do; she hoped we didn't invite everybody; well, we invited everybody (including her well-off step-children) ... or at least his brother did! But, hey, this way she got lots of loot! I think all-in-all she was NOT disappointed!

2-8 February
Last week, in comparison to the previous weeks, was rather quiet! In addition to the family stuff and work stuff the weekend before, I also managed to get my taxes done the morning of the 2nd (getting a nice refund which should help us slide nicely through the rest of the winter while R is getting unemployment); and we went bowling on the 3rd (had a coupon for up to ten 42¢ games in honor of Super Bowl XLII). The week was non-eventful, except for another snowstorm on Wednesday which kept me home again (nearly 9" that time).

An old friend and former college roommate contacted Mom looking for me at the end of January; he's back at Penn State working in the IT dept. It's always nice to reconnect after many years away. I hadn't heard from him in probably 15 yrs. Since reconnecting, I have created a Facebook profile. Still playing around with that.

I think that covers it!

follow-up to previous post

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:25:57 GMT

Well, I didn't get the pleasure of not having to help undecorate the apartment, as previously mentioned. But it was still a nice offer on R's part!

No, he did laundry Monday and ended up getting called in to work Tuesday (to run some stuff to a job). Wednesday, I worked from home, which was only to be part of the day; so we decided we could undecorate together in the afternoon ... but I ended up working right up to when I needed to get ready for an after-work staff outing! Thursday he had to go to a cousin's funeral.

I had today off, since I have vacation time to burn. So we got it done today (finally!).

I had a busy week; my boss had a 2-day staff meeting, and I was working on some preparations for one of the presenters. Tuesday I worked from 9:00-7:30! I didn't need to attend the staff meeting Wednesday, but was there all day Thursday; plus the bowling outing Wed. evening; and then an external meeting on Thursday evening! I'm tired!

omg, how lucky am i...

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:44:51 GMT

Neither of us was motivated to start taking down the decorations; we didn't even shower until like 3:00 or so! We each got dressed, and plopped down in our respective places watching mindless entertainment on Game Show Network. He finally said he would do the un-decorating this coming week, as it would give him something to do! What a guy!

This means I can go to the visitation tomorrow, too, which I'm glad I can do. Guess I'll really have to think of something extra special to do for him when the opportunity arises!

sympathy cards and lay-off

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:38:39 GMT

I decided a few months ago to start keeping a small stock of "get well" and "sympathy" cards on hand. Always seems I never have/make the time go run out and get one when I need one. I have sent four sympathy cards since then; 3 to former co-workers (for a 90-year-old mother, a 102-year-old grandmother, and a 60-year-old mother who died of ALS) and one to a co-worker (for a 75-year-old mother). I now need to send another to a former co-worker whose 50-year-old husband lost his battle with cancer yesterday morning. Visitation is tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll make it. Depends on how far R & I get on un-decorating the house (which we were too lazy to do last weekend).

R is officially laid-off now for the season. It's good and bad. Good because last year he did lots of heavy-duty cleaning around the house and because I probably won't have to do much in the way of laundry, cooking, or cleaning for the next couple months! Bad because of the money, of course; unemployment pays a little over 50% of what he usually makes. But he won't be using as much gasoline either. He also has a couple paying projects lined up with family members and one of his co-workers (painting and remodeling). And my tax refund helps too (thought I don't know what that's going to be yet). He'll probably start back after Easter, since it's so early this year.

places i've lived meme

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:52:31 GMT

I'm sure this is not an original idea ... but it just struck me as something fun to post! So here goes...

Conneaut (Monroe Twp.),	Ohio	6/66 - 11/75
Ashtabula (Ashtabula Twp.),	Ohio	11/75 - 6/80
Fredonia (Fairview Twp.),	Pa.	6/80 - 8/84
(and summers 85-87)
University Park (State College Borough),	Pa.	8/84 - 5/87
first dorm room		8/84 - 12/84
second dorm room (same building)		1/85 - 5/86
third dorm room (different building)		8/86 - 5/87
State College (Patton Twp.),	Pa.	8/87 - 8/88
State College (borough),	Pa.	8/88 - 8/89
State College (Ferguson Twp.),	Pa.	8/89 - 8/90
Fredonia (Fairview Twp.),	Pa.	8/90 - 2/92
Jackson Center (borough),	Pa.	2/92 - 5/93
Warren (city),	Ohio	5/93 - 3/94
Masury (Brookfield Twp.),	Ohio	3/94 - 10/94
West Middlesex (Shenango Twp.),	Pa.	10/94 - 2/95
Hubbard (city),	Ohio	3/95 - 12/96
Waukegan (city),	Ill.	1/97 - 11/99
Beach Park (village),	Ill.	11/99 - 3/01
Lake Bluff (village),	Ill.	3/01 - 10/05
Mundelein (village),	Ill.	11/05 - 2/06
Des Plaines (city),	Ill.	3/06 - present

poor kitty!!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:59:21 GMT

Cat Blamed for Idaho Blackout

"The Gods Must Be Crazy"

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:48:56 GMT

67 words

Touch Typing

WOO HOO! I even impressed myself with the typing test! It's weird since it's actually not sentences, but just a bunch of words.

I came across the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" on my cable the other day (Comcast On Demand)! Hadn't seen it in over 20 years! If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. It's a low-budget, independent film, but it's really amusing! R didn't get as big a kick out of it as I did, however! But he didn't give it a total thumbs down.

We should have taken the Christmas stuff down this weekend; it's still nearly 60° even now at 7:45p! Oh well...here's to being lazy! New Desperate Housewives on tonight too (tornado aftermath...and the last new episode "in the can" due to the writer's strike)!

new year's rambling 2008

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:14:49 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

I believe belluthien was wanting to see a pic of R & me. This is from last November (I'm on the left).

To follow in my sister's footsteps, I think I should post a year-end review...especially since I did such a poor job of keeping up on my journal over the past year! So here goes:

January – R & I traveled to Las Vegas • met his kids • spent the last full day holed up in our hotel with a stomach bug *blech* • celebrated our 1-year anniversary on the 28^th *yea*

February – R's 25-year-old nephew passed away unexpectedly on the 12^th • we fell off the non-smoking wagon

March – R goes back to work • got new living room furniture • reconnected with a long-lost friend from jr. high school

April – celebrated Easter with R's family • put some of my annual bonus toward season passes for Six Flags Great America

May – quiet month!

June – first of many excursions to Six Flags was on Father's Day (was packed!) • upgraded to better cable TV package *yea!* • Mom, Dad and Bonnie came to visit end of month

July – visiting family gets to meet R's family on the 1^st • R & I took week of 4^th off...went to Six Flags 2 or 3 times! • R's annual family picnic on the 7^th

August – went to Six Flags at least twice (I think) • big storm blew through our area on the 23^rd (straight-line winds clocked at near 100 mph) • final payment on the dining room furniture (from July '06)

September – R's cousin's son passed away unexpectedly at age 26

October – suspect charged in 1985 murder of my former classmate, Gina Tenney, in Youngstown, Ohio

November – major layoffs in my department (IT) at work • decked the halls TG weekend

December – only "free" weekend was the 1^st • traveled to PA for family Christmas the 15^th (arrived during snowstorm) • Christmas celebrations with R's family the next two weekends • lots of snow this month in the Chicago area

LOOKING AHEAD

I hope to do better this year on my goals! I plan to start exercising and subsequently lose a few pounds; we plan to quit smoking (again) when R is laid off; I plan to stay out of R's family's business...and keep out of trouble! That's a story for another time!

We had hoped to have a commitment ceremony in August, but it's not a good time financially for us to do it...so we'll shoot for 2009! This year will be one to get the debts paid off, and then we'll be able to start putting some money away for a ceremony...and to achieve our ultimate goal of moving to a warmer climate!

I wish all of my family and friends a healthy and prosperous 2008!

— D.

(nearly) post-Christmas post

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:47:33 GMT

Just wanted to pop in and wish a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it!

We had a good day...we opened our presents to each other this morning. I got R a new pair of dress pants and a dress shirt (every time he had to get dressed up this year, nothing fit!), and a really neat sweatshirt with a "poker" theme on it. He got me a new leather jacket (was originally $300, marked down to around $75, he said).

We went up to his sister-in-law's sister's house for the gift exchange and dinner (sooo much good food!); we had a nice time, and of course I ate too much...which is why I'm not going to bed yet! But R has to work tomorrow, so he's off to bed now...I took a vacation day tomorrow. I got some Christmas cash from Ma (R's mom) last evening, so I think I'll take a chance and brave the after-Christmas crowds tomorrow and see if I can find anything good!

— D.

More on my busy-ness!

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:41:06 GMT

I also didn't mention that I logged into work Wed. evening (to clean out my email in-box so it wouldn't take up time on Thurs.); put in about 12 hrs. Thurs.; and then was on-line from home again Fri. (yesterday) from about 6:30a to 11:30a! My boss requested her team to have their next-level organization announcements ready by Thurs. They needed to be formatted and posted, with the cover announcement to be sent out (linking to each individual's announcement). She had forgotten I was going to be out...but I said I'd come in, because I like doing all that stuff. I get to work with HTML and make everything "pretty!" I also put together a new website for our new organization (which I actually started last week); and got all the new organization charts posted and linked to that! I clicked "send" on the cover announcement right before I left for the lunch party yesterday! Then did some shopping after that (I'm about done...just need a couple more things for R's stocking).

So after my whining here last night, I did get off the computer and get the cards done with R's help – they'll go out today – and I pretty much got all my wrapping done. Didn't bake any cookies, though. The apartment gets so darn hot with all the Christmas lights on (we have about 100 C-7 bulbs going, counting the tree and the villages), and the oven just makes it worse! Apparently no one aside from two of R's brothers and his sister-in-law (and probably a niece) are going to step-mother's today (no Aunt Marilyn & Sam or any other people), so I don't think I need to bother bringing any cookies today. I'll take some Christmas Eve to step-brother's house and see the same people there. Then I'll take what's left to sister-in-law's sister's house for Christmas Day. I can make them all tomorrow. It'll be a good day for it, since it's supposed to get cold out – won't need to turn the heat on!

So far behind!

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:20:39 GMT

I can't believe it's the 21^st, and I (we) haven't even gotten the Christmas cards out yet! I say "I," since R is really waiting for me to get stuff ready! I print my own cards, and like three weeks ago, I printed them all out. When I went to do some to take to work, I realized I had printed the insides upside-down! GAH! That was a costly mistake! So I bought new stuff and printed them again a couple weeks ago...and they're still sitting! I've been off work since last Friday (vacation), and haven't even finished my shopping yet! But of course part of that was the trip to PA over the weekend for Christmas with the family!

We had a good time...albeit a very quick trip, since R didn't have the luxury of having the week off like I did.

Still have presents to wrap...cookies to make...and I'm playing on the computer! Oh well...the cards will get out...eventually!

— D.