2/16/09

1. Coffee
2. Finishing a major project
3. Three hours of NCIS
4. Leftover Chinese food
5. Soft, warm socks

2/17/09

1. My navel is not bleeding today.
2. Yummy rice for lunch that helped settle my upset stomach.
3. Strawberry flavored cough drops.
4. More leftover Chinese food.
5. Going to bed early and falling asleep very comfortable.

2/18/09

1. Deciding to go off the stupid elimination diet.
2. I look fantastic today.
3. I smell great, too.  I smell like home, the laundry, linen, and sleep scent of the bedroom.  The smell that makes the house *ours* instead of Pam’s.
4. PIZZA for dinner.  Oreos for dessert.
5. Really fantastic fun with friends online.  I rolled a 29 on my bluff check and instead of being totally eliminated by the 3 goons behind the door, I convinced one of them to “walk me home” and the rest of my party ambushed him as soon as we came through the door.  Sadly, they wouldn’t let me try it again.  I really think we could have taken a second one.

2/14/09

1. The eye doctor was able to schedule Justin in right away in the morning so we were able to get his eye looked at without waiting days.
2. Wandering around the grocery store picking up a few items while waiting for prescriptions to be filled was amusing.
3. We didn’t have reservations anywhere so we didn’t have to cancel our plans.
4. Finishing a good book.
5. Justin sat and watched a movie with me even though he didn’t particularly want to watch that particular movie but did it because I wanted to.

2/15/09

1. I love it when people stop to chat with us at church. And we know their names and things about them and can have meaningful conversations. We know people!
2. Afternoon naps are fantastic things when you’re so tired and feeling so sick. And there’s this huge, soft body pillow and several other pillows and piles and piles of blankets and warm sunlight coming in not too brightly through the window but enough to feel soft and warm and comforting. And waking up becuase your husband doesn’t think you want to sleep the whole day away so 2 hours is probably long enough but if you’re still not feeling well, just stay curled up in bed and read for a while and he’ll bring you toast (rice bread) with cinnamon sugar and some orange juice while you stay curled up.
3. Feeling a little better and getting the checking account balanced, receipts sorted and FSA information figured, and checks for bills sent out as well as a few thank you cards, meaning that the whole afternoon wasn’t a complete wash.
4. Chinese food that, so far as we know, doesn’t have any wheat or dairy products in it but tastes so amazingly good I could eat buckets full and still not be bored.
5. Curling up on the couch and watching StarGate Atlantis while Justin reads a book and not moving for 3 hours or so. Seriously, today was so much better than Valentine’s day.

2/10/09

1. Fog sitting on the marsh like a soft cashmere shawl draped over the shoulders, and the full moon hanging over it like a pearl pendant necklace.
2. My cleavage is really impressive in this outfit. Like, wow, where’d that come from?!
3. Yoga! Fantasticness.
4. Really delicious salad for dinner. Romaine, mandarin oranges, strawberries, chicken, bacon, and pomegranate vinaigrette.
5. Writing several pages of a document for a project at work and feeling really good about the results.

2/11/09

1. Getting so many praises because of the brownies I brought into the office today.
2. Learning how to work with a new program for a project at work.
3. Beautiful, gorgeous weather at lunch.
4. Getting to work on time even though I hit the wrong button on my alarm and got out of bed 20 minutes later than usual.
5. I went the whole day without eating anything dairy or wheat. And I still got a good amount of yummy food. I didn’t even cheat and have one of my brownies.

2/12/09

1. Finally being able to make progress on a project that I’ve been stuck behind for ages and it’s more overdue than I would like.
2. Getting lots of complements on my photography in the frames on my desk.
3. Being able to find food at the company lunch that still lets me eat plenty without eating any wheat or dairy products.
4. Fantastic, relaxing, luxurious, de-stressing hot bath with a book and a loooooong time to enjoy it.
5. A really fantastic run where I was able to run almost the entire way, across terrain, and a really good clip.

2/13/09

1. Finally catching up from the backlog of Grace in Small Things!
2. Chiropractic coverage in my insurance and a really lovely chiropractor who was fun to chat with and comfortable to have her work on me. Of course, she says I’m horribly out of alignment which explains a lot of my problems with soreness and my uneven hips. But, hey! Chiropractic coverage in my insurance!
3. The Green Wise section of Publix, offering the consumer a multitude of options for the wheat and dairy free diet. Like bread mix and pasta and cookies and pancake mix and pudding and brownie mix and all sorts of lovelies. Now to see if they taste any good.
4. My husband, who reminded me to pick up a few things to put out for Bumper Bag weekend at church, the weekend when people bring food items to give to the local food shelf. I had forgotten. But he remembered and suggested I pick things up. Even if money is tight for us, I married a man who remembers to help out people in need.
5. Knowing that all the people Justin and I know who live in or frequently fly into Buffalo are all fine and not crashed in that plane.

2/5/09

1. I had a good review with my boss/manager about my work for the company thus far.  Everybody else is doing yearly reviews; mine was a 45 day review.  So not as productive, maybe, as other reviews, but good to know goals and discuss plans for the future and know how he thinks I’m doing.
2. We had a very good meeting that finished off all the audit questions and finalized, hopefully, that whole form.  I’ve been slaving over this project for months, putting in a lot of sweat and tears, and I’m so glad that we’ve finally filled in all the slots with questions that we all agree on.  I think it’s going to be a very good tool for the company and I’m excited to see how it works out in actual use.  Now on to the next part of that project . . . .
3. Google Reader seems to be doing what I’d like it to do, which is to make it easier to tell when sites I read have updated, in a format that’s easy to navigate and functional.  I had been using an RSS ticker add-on for Firefox but it slowed things down too much and was distracting.  This seems to be working well.
4. I’m writing again!  And while it doesn’t always come easily, it’s going very well tonight!  Fun!!
5. Waffles for dinner with whipped cream and strawberries.  *Drool*

2/6/09

1. My Zen Stone Plus arrived in the mail today!  It’s absolutely the perfect color pink, even smaller than I was expecting, and awesome in so many ways!  Now I have something I can listen to when I go running.  Something that’s designed precisely for running.  Something cute and geeky and awesome!
2. The owner of the company who sent out guys last week to fix the water heater came out to look at it himself this time.  So instead of having two guys out in the backyard smoking and not actually fixing anything, we had a guy who actually knew what he was doing and who probably actually fixed it this time.  Especially because when he took of the bottom hatch to look at the lower thermostat, it started smoking.  So he fixed both the upper and the lower thermostats.  The last guys told us that they replaced the upper thermostat but didn’t actually do it, probably because they thought that fixing the two wires that were singed would fix the problem just as well as telling us to stop turning up the water so hot.  Yes, I turned the water that hot because I wanted to burn the skin off my hands, thank you.  Yes, I’m bitter, dang it!  And YES, I’m so glad that the owner came out this time.  Also, that we’re renting and don’t actually have to foot the bill for any of this.
3. I had fun at work today!  I didn’t get nearly what I needed to accomplish, but I got some good, creative things done that I’m going to follow up on next week and I’m quite pleased with what I’ve got going.
4. I have new pictures in all the frames at my desk at work!  Lots of flowers to get me out of January/February slump and ready for spring.  Plus pictures of all THREE of my nieces and nephew.
5. Looking at socks on Sock Dreams and thinking about what I would get if I could spend $20 or $30 on socks.

2/7/09

1. Running!  Not very far or anything like that, but I went!  And it felt lovely, underneath the whole “Oh, this is hard work!” feeling.
2. Beautiful, warm sunlight on the bed while I’m waking up, much later in the morning than necessary but loving every lazy moment of it.
3. Date night!  Out to Paulie’s for coal grilled pizza and cheesy garlic bread, and then just around the corner to the movie theater to see “Coraline” which was really unexpectedly creepy at spots, but also a whole lot of fun.
4. Homemade banana-strawberry ice cream shakes with whipped cream and a strawberry slice on top.  Delicious!
5. Hot water!  Without hitting the reset button on the hot water heater!  And hot in a friendly, warm way and not hot in an angry “I’m going to burn your face off” kind of way.

2/8/09

1. Finally getting my gallery to start doing what I want it to do.  It took me all afternoon, hours and hours of trying and doing and all sorts of mess.  But it’s finally starting to come together.
2. Freshly washed sheets.
3. After weeks of avoiding it, I finally did the ironing.  It feels so good having that done for at least a couple days.
4. Fun wandering around in Target looking for different things and discovering other things that are fun.  Families shopping together, old friends greeting each other.  Smelling the soaps and candles, laughing at items in the intimates section of the pharmacy.  (“Now with more vibrations”?  Seriously?!  In Target?!)
5. Readig in bed for a while before sleeping.

2/9/09

1. Having good energy throughout the day that helped me get through the whole mess of a lot of things that I had to accomplish.  Of course, I didn’t finish nearly all of it and I have a lot more to do tomorrow, but it was good to start the week on a positive note.
2. Hot water!  Okay, yeah, I know I just said this, but it’s still hot!  And, okay, so it wasn’t quite hot enough so Justin went out and turned it up just a little bit and ended up shocking himself pretty bad, but it stayed hot without us hitting a button!  I’m pretty sure it’s actually fixed this time.
3. Husband who tidied the house because he had a few minutes before I got home.  So he made the bed and put up the dirty dishes and put away the new package of toilet paper and the multitude of items on his sink.
4. Running somewhere other than around the pool 21 times.  We went running up the road and around a soccer field and through a little bit of woods.  It was really hard to run on actual terrain instead of hard-packed trail, and my body let me know plain and clear that I’m not in good shape.  But it was so refreshing to run somewhere new.
5. Listening to the president address the nation about the financial package and other things happening in the world.  He’s a good communicator and I had fun going back and forth with Justin about what I heard him say and what was actually said.  He might be good at communicating but I’m not always so good with politicking.

1/31/09

1. Justin’s eye appointment brought him home some eye drops that should, hopefully clear up his painful eye situation.
2. His afternoon acupuncture appointment brought him some headache relief.
3. I was able to vacuum the whole house while he was out and it looked amazing! (Until I dropped stuff all over the floor while making brownies.)
4. I had fun making really complicated brownies, even if I had to stop after 4 hours and they still weren’t finished.
5. Fun watching movies while working on projects like cleaning and baking.

2/1/09

1. We became members of the church during the service this morning! I think I’ve spoken to more people today than I have the whole six months prior to this.
2. Justin got baptized today by immersion.
3. We were treated out to lunch with the rest of the pastors and people from the church who were at the baptism service. The food was delicious and we got to spend some time meeting some really lovely people.
4. My office is clean! Even Justin’s office is tidy!
5. Checkbook? Balanced!

2/2/09

1. There was beautiful sunlight over the marsh this morning as I went in to work.
2. We’ve managed to completely finish one huge mess encompassing three related projects. One down! Two more to go!
3. I love my new glasses. They’re beautiful and fit fantastic and I like them so much!
4. I got an Indian shooting a star on my Tootsie Pop. Why does that matter?
5. A really lovely, relaxing evening with my favorite person. Doing nothing at all, really, and enjoying that luxury.

2/3/09

1. I just figured out how much paid vacation I’m getting for the year and it honestly made me look at my calendar with wide eyes wondering how on earth I’m going to use up all those days. The two years I was a temp, I didn’t get paid vacation. I have more than two weeks now, besides the paid holidays, when I can spend time away from work and still get paid for it! This is so exciting! I think I’ll not work on my birthday.
2. I’m so glad I bought the WWF Baby Animals calendar for the wall of my office. I don’t normally spend money on something like that–I can get calendars for free. But the pictures on this thing make me smile all through the month. This month it’s monkeys!
3. I’ve replaced about half the pictures on my desk (I’m waiting for the rest to get printed and mailed to me) and I find it very refreshing! I moved one frame up next to my computer so I can see it without turning around. It’s just a picture of grass and small white flowers, but it’s so peaceful and relaxing.
4. I think I might be able to pay off the Target card, and still manage to get $1000 in the savings account this month, and still be able to buy a few pairs of socks from Sock Dreams. Cross those two things off my list and still be able to buy nice things?! Awesomesauce.

2/4/09

1. Chai tea with honey and pumpkin spice soy milk. Heavenly!
2. No time to exercise at home today? No worries! I’m running back and forth from one side of the building to the other all day long!
3. Good times with friends online.
4. Random coworker gave me a lift to the parking lot to save me steps out in the windy, chilly weather.
5. Pictures in the mail! Excellent! I can update my work desk pictures!