Not really sure where to go with this post today.  I’m feeling bummed because I’m down here in the South when my whole family is starting to gather up in Wisconsin.  So there’s this whole displacement feeling thing happening and it’s a little disconcerting.

Um . . . work was fine.  I got to leave early, after I wrapped up my projects for the week.  I’m pretty sure I was the last person in my department to leave, but my projects took me a while.  They’re getting more complicated.

Just got back from the grocery, hitting the pharmacy for pills for Restless Leg Syndrome.  I mention because I was very excited to have $0 copay for my meds because of my fantastic new insurance.  It’s a wonderful change to the $50 or so I’ve been paying for my birth control meds.  I’m not sure if those will have the same copay (nothing!), but I’m looking forward to finding out.

The RLS thing is new.  Well, the twitching and uncomfortableness and all the leg stuff isn’t new.  That’s been a couple years in the making.  This is the first time I’m trying medication to actually help with it.  It’s a weird thing because there’s no easy symptoms to say whether or not it’s actually RLS.  Which is part of why I haven’t done meds before.  But it’s been to the point and then some where I just can’t handle it anymore.  So I’m trying the medicated route.

Justin and I started on season 2 of Heroes the other night.  We’ve finished all the SG:1 that we’ve got in the house (I might be able to get those to the post office on Friday) so we’re moving on to something else.  We’ve been recording season 3 on the box downstairs, but we can’t watch any of that until we get through season 2.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed this show.  I can’t predict it!  So many other things I can predit while watching them.  It’s a little irritating, actually.  I love a show that keeps me contantly on my toes!

Tomorrow Justin and I are cooking a whole heap of food that’s going to keep us eating leftovers for the next week and a half.  We like cooking.  We like so many of the options of the traditional Thanksgiving meals.  So we’re taking advantage of those and cooking up a storm.  I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

But now, I’m going to log off and go get some dinner.  We’re going to curl up and watch a little TV.  And I’m going to get some sleep.  It’s been a long week and I’m very much looking forward to the long weekend.  Tomorrow is cooking and cleaning up house and relaxing a lot.  I have a list of projects that I’d really like to get done over the rest of the weekend, but tonight is all about the lounging.

I hope you all traveled safely!  If you’re traveling tomorrow, keep safe.  Have a fantastic time with who ever you’re spending the holiday with.

And to my family:  I LOVE YOU ALL!!  I miss you tons and I wish we could have made it.    Take pictures of the kids for me and somebody give me a call sometime tomorrow, please?  I’ll make sure my phone is plugged in and somewhere I can hear it.  (Just don’t call too early ’cause I’m *sleepin’*!)  I love you, guys!!!

This is another one of those memes.  It’s a list of 101 activities and I’m supposed to put in bold the ones that I have accomplished.

There will be real posts again on days when I’m not working until 6:00 at night and then going grocery shopping as soon as I get home.  Until then, this kind of stuff and the videos from yesterday are whatcha get!

Have I ever:

1. Started your own blog  (Yeah, that one’s kind of easy.)
   
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band  (Marching band counts, right?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity  (If we count helping out a friend in need, then yes.)
7. Been to Disneyland  (Disney World, yes.  Disneyland, no.)
8. Climbed a mountain  (It was called a mountain, but it was more of a walk up it than a climb.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo  (So.  Many.  Times.)
11. Bungee jumped  (Never, ever again.)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch  (I know how to etch glass poorly.)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill  (I was too tired to function, but not actually sick.)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied  (For a little while.  And then unemployment messed it up.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David  (Walked past the building–the line was half a mile long and it was 90 degrees)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater  (Didn’t see the movie because we got there at the wrong time and left.)
55. Been in a movie  (College film festival)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy  (I have a couple stuffed animals from when I was very small.)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous  (Does Scott Kurtz count?  He’s famous in some circles.)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake  (I think so.  I remember being there, I just can’t remember if we went swimming.)
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone  (Since Christmas of either 1998 or 1999)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Been to Mount Rushmore in person  (Twice.)
101. Learned to play an instrument

Struggling with writer’s block over here, which is just a little sad.  But it was a very, very long day and my brain isn’t forming sentences very well.  And I certainly can’t think of a topic that would hold me through a few paragraphs.

So.

Cat on a Roomba!

Weekends keep throwing me off, posting-wise.  I get to some point of my evening, which today was about two minutes ago, and think “Ack!  I need to post something!”  It’s just not a part of my normal weekend thought.

Today was another lovely day.  We went to church.  I think we’re going to give the church we visited where the pastor was on sabbatical one last try, once that pastor gets back.  But right now, we’re pretty much set on the church that, coincidentally, meets just across the street in the high school.  It’s nice.  We like the pastor.  I love that he preaches straight out of the Bible and encourages everybody to actually have a Bible to follow along.  It’s good stuff.

This afternoon, I returned the curtains we got last week that didn’t work for the living room and picked up two others to try instead.  I also picked up another set of curtain rods for the upstairs bedroom because it turns out the set we got last weekend is a layered set–one rod for the curtain and another for the valance.  Not actually a set of two for two windows.  Oops!  At home, I put up the new curtains on the already hanging rod, which, it turns out, is now too low for these curtains.  But these work quite well and I think we’ll keep them.  Probably.  And next weekend we’ll hang the curtains up in the bedroom.

And then I made ginger cookies for the potluck lunch on Tuesday.  I’m going to be working 10-hour days this week to cut down on the hours that are used up for holiday and vacation because I don’t have quite enough to cover the entire Christmas holiday.  Working long hours will cut down on the unpaid portion of the holiday, but not quite eliminate it.  Still, it’s substantially better than last year.  And with things happening the way they are at work (they’re trying to get as much done before the end of the fiscal year as possible), I’ll certainly be able to find work to keep me busy.  And the point of saying all that was to say that I did the cookies today because those cookies take me several hours to make and there was no way I’d have time to do that tomorrow.  Now I just have to make sure Justin doesn’t eat them all before Tuesday.

Oh!  Our date yesterday was fantastic.  We went to the beach.  It was cold and it was dark, but it was really amazing.  I only freaked out a little bit, just three times–when I realized how dark it was and kept thinking that someone was going to sneak up behind us and stab us.  Crazy brain.  Totally absurd.  If we’d been walking in the woods, I’d have been afraid of bears or wildcats attacking us and eating us.  There’s no rationality behind it.

Anyway.  We walked down to the edge of the water, where we could just barely see the waves.  The cresting white tops a little ways off made the most noise, crashing down louder than the waves just lapping at the edge of the beach.  The light from the city behind us reflected on the white, leaving the rest of the ocean an inky black.  Lights from a few ships and a lighthouse far away from where were stood were the only lights on the water, and above them stretched a huge expanse of stars.  It’s amazing how many stars are visible away from the lights of town.  We only stepped a little ways away from the lights, getting down to the water, and there were so many stars to see.

We walked down the coast for a while, listening to the water and chatting, the wet sand firm beneath our shoes.  The wind coming off the waves was cold, making my cheeks sting a little and I pulled my hat down over my ears.  We held hands in pockets, keeping fingers warm.  When we turned back, we stood and looked at the stars again for a while.  I saw a shooting star fall, leaving a long, bright tail behind it.  It was fantastic.

We found our way back to the car, chilled through, but having a great time.  After looking at the map a little, Justin navigated us right to the restaurant where we had dinner.  Justin ordered fried shrimp, halibut, and scallops.  I got a chicken and shrimp curry over jasmine rice.  It came in half a pineapple!  Seriously!  A pineapple split lengthwise and hollowed out filled with all sorts of yummy goodness.  I have it down in the fridge, but I don’t have a picture of it yet.  Justin’s scallops took him to his happy place.  He closed his eyes and completely zoned out while he was eating one.  They were that melt-in-your-mouth kind of good.  He very much enjoyed them.

And then we came home and watched an episode of SG:1.  We’re two episodes away from the end of Season 8, so I’m going to have to mail them all back to Nathan soon.  Apparently these last two episodes are wrapping up an era with this show and the last two seasons go a completely different direction.  I’m excited to see where they go, but sad that all these characters that I’ve gotten so invested in are going to be heading in different directions.  But I don’t really know where it’s going, so I’ll just have to wait.

I hope you all had a really great weekend.  Mine was fantastic!

I’ll check in with ya’ll again tomorrow!

My day?

I slept in.  I fit everything except for the bikes in the porch closet, with room to spare.  Just not enough for the bikes.  I trimmed all the vines back from the plants in the back yard.  I exercised.  I did my ironing.  And I’ve watched several hours of NCIS.

My evening?

We’re going on a date to a fancy restaurant.  I can’t remember the last time we went somewhere expensive.  And we’re going for a walk on the beach.

Overall?
Can’t think of how it could have been better.