A little flashback for a minute here:  Justin quit his job on June 23rd.  He handed in his resignation, effective immediately.  He said that he’d help wrap up a few projects, but that he was done.  Not working for them anymore.  Q-U-I-T-T-I-N-G.

He worked on projects for them a little bit for the next week and then we went out of town for a week.  And then he spent a little more time late last week working on things for them.  But the whole time, he’s been pushing that he’s done.  He’s not doing projects; he’s wrapping up stuff and he’s gone.  On, I think it was Friday, they brought him a hard-drive to put files onto so he could give them projects from his home computer and wrap up that stuff.  Monday, he had other work, and they knew about it, so he didn’t answer when they called.  Fourteen times.  When he did call them, he offered to get the drive back to them, but they didn’t want to come pick it up that day.

You can see where this is going, right?

People from his former employment (either the boss and a coworker or just the coworker, I’m not sure) pounded on our front door Wednesday morning for TWO HOURS.  That’s two full hours of knocking and pounding and yelling at the house, interspersed with moments of quiet when I’d sit there hoping that they’d finally gone away.  Oh, heck no, I didn’t open the door!  When people pound like that on my door, I’m not opening it up!  No, no.  I hid up in my bedroom, away from windows so they couldn’t see that I was home.  And tried to concentrate on other things than the people knocking stuff off the backside of the door because they were pounding so viciously.  People who stood outside in upper-80* weather in 85% humidity for TWO HOURS.  People who freaked me the heck out.

Also, people who are apparently a little stupid.

After 2 hours, the police showed up.  Inside my house, I was happily promising to bake cookies for the wonderful neighbor who’d had the sense to call the cops on the lady (because at that time I was sure it was just the one coworker—if the boss had been there, he’d already driven off in a huff) who was trying to break into our house by repeatedly banging on the front door.  (Why hadn’t I called the cops by then?  Good question . . . .)  Anyway, the heroic officer asked the woman for her ID, asked what was going on, and sent her away.

Sounds about right, right?

Here’s the funny part—the disgruntled ex-boss was the one who called the cops.  Yeah!  He called the local PD to come to our house to help figure out why I wasn’t answering the door!  So when the officer showed up, well, (1) the lady coworker was the only one still there because the boss left her to handle the mess and (2) the officer was not inclined to be helpful to the lady who’d been pounding on the door of what might be an empty house for 2 hours.  (Yes, I was still pretending to not be at home—don’t judge me, I was terrified!)  In fact, when the officer heard that she was trying to get back a hard-drive that she’d GIVEN to the homeowner who had offered to RETURN it, he laughed at her.  And then gave her a warning and told her to leave.

Justin sent a delightfully nasty email to his former employer and coworker later that afternoon telling them that the behavior was unacceptable and that he was done doing work for them.  Not still finishing stuff up.  DONE.  He wasn’t going to work for people who pounded on the door of his house and terrified his wife.  He would leave the hard-drive in our mailbox and they could either pick it up, or he’d destroy it.  And I’m not fully expressing the emotion that he put into his email, but he was angry.  He was Steamed with a capital S.  His protectiveness for me came out full-bore and he wrote that email like a paladin would have stormed into the dragon’s den to save the princess being held hostage.  He was really, really mad.

His coworker called crying and apologetic about the whole thing, saying that she only pounded on our door because the boss told her to do it.  To which Justin said that the Nazi’s couldn’t get away with that excuse, and neither could she.  If I had called the cops and if I had answered the door when the officer showed up, I could probably have pressed charges and then she would be the one in trouble because she was the only one still there.  I’d love to see how a judge would react if she stood up there and said, “My boss made me do it.”  That sort of thing doesn’t fly once you get over the age of, oh . . . 8 or so.

But she told Justin what had happened on her end of the story (which is how I know the cop laughed at her) and asked him to tell me that she was really sorry.  She came by this morning and collected the hard-drive (we were at the beach) and left a note on Justin’s car apologizing again (and again said she was “just doing what [she] was told”) and now we’re done.  Justin is forgoing payment for the work he did last week and we’re not having anything further to do with this company.  And people, it feels SO GOOD.

Wednesday:

• Awake at 3:30 to drive to the airport in Charleston.  Drink 30 oz of coffee and get VERY WIRED.
• Fly from Charleston to Chicago.
• Fly from Chicago to Milwaukee.
• Sit in Milwaukee for a long time because our flight was delayed.
• Find a used bookstore in the airport.

Bookstore where?

Renaissance Books

• Fly to Minneapolis.
• Collect our rental car and call Nathan and Co.
• Meet Nathan & Co. and Erica & Ltd. at Erica’s house and have a fun-filled picnic dinner.
• Play with nieces and nephews and lots and lots of balls.  Play in the park.

Fun with plastic balls

• Eat s’mores with Erica.
• Go to bed after being awake for about 20 hours.

Thursday:

• Get up to go running with Erica and plod my way through 2.5 miles for the first time in many, many months.
• Ache for the next 2 days.
• Shower, dress, and drive away.
• Chat with Erica and pass things to Chloe until we get to Eau Claire.

Chloe, show me your teeth!

• Have a delightful lunch with Mom and Dad.
• Go to Goodwill to find shoes for Chloe and buy a hat and purse.
• Drive to Grandma’s house.

Grandma's house

• Have a delightful dinner with Grandma and Dee and stay up late chatting.

Friday:

• Get up and have a big breakfast with Grandma and Dee.
• Sit around chatting and working out genealogy and enjoying company.
• Shower.
• Take Chloe to the park and have fun running around.

Chloe on the playground

• Eat lunch.
• Go through my wedding book with Grandma, pointing out people she didn’t know.
• Say good-byes and drive away.

Group shot with Grandma and Dee

• Drive to Knoxville, IA.
• Get lost.
• Get un-lost.
• Hug Grandpa Doug and other people in the dark and not know who they are.
• Get settled into the camper trailer and meet Justin’s aunt, uncle, and cousin.
• Sleep on a mattress covered in plastic, with heads lower than our feet and get a sore throat.

Saturday:

• Get up and chat with people in the trailer while breakfasting and getting ready.
• Wander down to the pond and meet a couple more people.
• Wander down to the barn and say good morning to Grandpa Doug and Great-uncle Bob and a few other people.

Barnett's barn

• Wander down to the tent and meet Great-uncle Jerry and help him wipe down chairs for lunch.

Reunion tent

• Meet a couple more people.
• Run into town to grab some things from Walmart (a pillow, throat drops, hot dogs, a fan)
• Make it back to the farm in time to meet a whole bunch more people, grab a few sodas, and stand around chatting for a little bit before lunch.
• Have an unfortunate run-in with a gust of wind in a billowy top and face questions about whether I’m pregnant.  Quelch that rumor as quickly as possible.
• Eat lunch.
• Sit around chatting with people.
• Sneak off to take a nap.
• Wander around the property of a distant cousin who raises lilies and hostas.

Randy's hostas

Randy's flowers

Purple flowers

Stone stairs

Grass driveway

Lily

• Jump in the pond for a swim before dinner.
• Meet a couple more people while swimming.
• Go to dinner in a different outfit than at lunch.  No billowing.
• Meet even more people.
• Cheer for the talent show.

Grandpa Doug on harmonica

• Cook s’mores.
• Chat with people until dark.
• Watch the men clear up chairs and tables in preparation for inclement weather.
• Move trash bags to the side so they wouldn’t wash away.
• Walk back to the trailer in awe of all the lightning bugs.
• Die of heat while trying to sleep, even with the fan blowing, with a sore throat and feet higher than our heads and a loud plastic wrapper on the mattress.

Sunday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress.  Feel very groggy, head-stuffy, throat-achy.
• Go to the high school for lunch because of the expectation of rain.
• Cram 130+ people into the high school cafeteria.

Barnetts in the high school cafeteria

• Meet a few more people.
• Eat delicious lunch.
• Release a microphone to the masses.
• Hide in the bathroom for a little bit.
• Walk around the school with Justin a little bit.
• Leave messages on Gillian’s phone.
• Drive back to the farm.

Barnett rock

• Go sit at the barn out of the rain and talk with people.
• Walk back to the pond and watch Justin go swimming while I sit on the dock under an umbrella.
• Change into dry clothes.  Call Gillian.
• Chat with people for a little longer.
• Go see Gillian.
• Chat with Gillian and play with her children for a while.  Forget to take a picture.
• Leave so the kids can get to sleep.  Go out for dinner.
• Watch fireworks as we drive home.
• Go to sleep with sound of rain and cool air blowing.

Monday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress, pack.
• Throw everything into car.
• Wander up to the barn to chat with people.
• Wander around old homestead house and take pictures.

Git offa my lawn

Outside his childhood bedroom window

Outhouse

Wooden steps

Water wheel

The reason we made the trip

• Sit back down and chat some more.
• Finally say good-byes and drive off.
• Stop for lunch and move our luggage into the back seat.
• Repack everything so it fits into one suitcase while Justin drives.
• Meet Sara at Cheesecake Factory, but walk across the street to Barnes and Noble to work up an appetite.
• Catch up with Sara and wander around the store.
• Go back and have a delicious dinner.
• Wander around the mall a little bit before saying good-byes.

Tickle shot

• Drive to Erica’s house and keep her up late while we finish packing and getting ready.  She braids my hair.

Tuesday:

• Get up a little before 5:00 to pack up, put up the beds, and head to the airport.
• Arrive on time, return the car, check in, make it through security, and only sit a little while before boarding.
• Fly to Chicago.
• Get adopted by an 80-year old woman looking for help getting to her gate.
• Stay more calm about the shuttle bus to another concourse and the time crunch of our layover because of that angelic woman.
• Get to the gate just as they finish boarding and get right on the airplane.
• Fly to Charleston.
• Collect our luggage, find the car, and drive home.
• Pile everything inside the house.
• Shower and curl up to relax.
• Fall asleep and sleep for about 15 hours.

And as a bonus! Wednesday:

• Relax all morning.
• Go to our financial advisor appointment and start making good plans.
• Go to the grocery store.
• Get a flat tire leaving the grocery store.
• Watch Justin put on spare tire.
• Go home and unload the groceries and tidy the kitchen while Justin sorts the luggage into dirty laundry hampers.
• Eat a late lunch.
• Take the car to Tire Kingdom.
• Buy a new tire.
• Go home.
• Find out that Justin’s old boss and coworker had shown up AT THE HOUSE to ask why he hadn’t been answering his cell phone.
• Laugh delightedly that he no longer works there.
• Relax for the rest of the evening.

Look:

This is a cookie sheet!  It fits perfectly over the sink of our place.  I had it out because I made bread out of the over-ripe pears yesterday and when I washed the romaine it was so easy to just set it on there and let it dry for a bit while I went to cut cucumber.

It worked so well!  The water dripped right through and didn’t spill over the counter like it would normally with our cutting board.  And once I came back to cut the romaine, I just cut it on the cookie sheet, too.  The water kept running on through the mesh instead of all over my counter!

Plus, when I wanted to drop things into the sink, it was just a little ways to reach, and I could see everything that was underneath.  So when I dropped my knife that I’d used for the cucumber, I didn’t have to go groping around blindly–I could see exactly where it had gone.

Anyway, I thought it was a fantastic idea and I just had to share it.  I’ll have more to say soon.

Cheers!

And I am going to do a post about Grandma Mic (is that how to spell her name? I’ve never been clear on that) soon.  Things have just been crazy, making it hard for my creative side to think and write.

More news on that soon-ish.  But for right now, I’m going to play with code a little bit.

OH!  HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DAD!!!  Love you lots!!

I’m really excited for both of these encounters.  My exposure to the Barnett family has been pretty limited so far.  It’s been notable, to be sure—Grandpa Doug cut in on our first dance at our wedding, something that makes me laugh every time I think about it.  I guess after you’ve lived long enough, there are some social situations that simply don’t seem to apply anymore.  But most of my time spent with Justin’s family has been with people from his mother’s side of the family.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s like on the other side of the tree.  My understanding is that we’re going to be spending the weekend at the family farm, sleeping in a trailer that’s been brought on site for a handful of us, while several other people sleep in the barn on cots.  It’s going to be interesting!

The other part of the trip is going to be spent with my paternal grandmother, and my maternal grandmother if she’ll see us.  I haven’t seen my paternal grandma since, I think, 2004, when she came up for my sister’s graduation.  I haven’t seen my other grandma since . . . I’m not even sure.  It’s probably been more than 10 years.

I started writing about memories that I have of each of my grandmas and, well, when I hit the third page of writing, I thought that maybe I shouldn’t put all of that up in one post.  So, if I can manage it, I’m going to write about some memories that I have of my grandparents over the next couple days.  Which makes this a post about a post that’s not up yet, and those are always frustrating.  “You’re telling me you’re going to tell me something but you’re not actually telling me anything?!”

So . . . um . . .well, the weather’s been pleasant.  It’s hot during the day, but the mornings are nice.  Last night, I got home from work and Justin and I went grocery shopping to replace things like bread and milk that were emptied out while his family was in town.  He went home to put the food away and I went to Zumba and had a blast shaking my booty.  And then I came home, showered, and went downstairs to make banana bread out of the bananas going bad on the counter.  I have no idea if it turned out because I put walnuts in there and they don’t cooperate with me.  And then I made sautéed apples with some of the many apples in bowls in the kitchen.  I used 8 of them (they’re really little) but I think we still have 8 left.  The ones I cooked turned out really yummy, though.  They’re like the apples you can get from Cracker Barrel.  Not great on calories, but ooooooh, so good.  And Justin made pancakes that nearly exploded with fluffiness.  Our only explanation is that he opened a new container of baking powder and the old one must have been really old.

And now I’m hungry.  Great.

Hey, does your calendar say “Juneteenth” on the 19th, too?  Apparently it’s actually a pretty significant holiday (in 36 states) but I’d never heard of it.  Have you?

Update to the update to the thing with my car
Friday morning, I came home from work early so I could meet an insurance assessor (or something like that) who wanted to look at my car and our mailbox.  She was a lovely woman, very pleasant to work with, and she took measurements and photographs of the damage on my car and the damage on my mailbox.  I pulled my car out of the driveway and lined it up with my mailbox and she took photographs of that, too, so it’s obvious that the marks on my car line up perfectly with the damage on my mailbox.

She wasn’t terribly forthcoming about her opinion on the matter, but I got the impression that she understood that the damage to my car was fairly obviously done by encounters with my mailbox.  I asked if she’d be the one to go look at the Tahoe, but she said that the insurance company would probably send someone from the Georgia side of things.

And now I’ve done everything possible for me to do.  I gave a copy of the Security officer’s report to the assessor when she was at the house and she was going to forward that to my claims officer.  I spoke with an agent from my local insurance office this morning and he’s checking around to make sure that there aren’t any loose threads out there.  But as far as I know, there’s nothing more for me to do other than wait for information while the insurance companies duke it out.

Trip to Toccoa
After dealing with the insurance and then running into town to get my oil changed and pick up some supplies from Target, I packed up for our trip to northeast Georgia to go see my family for a handful of hours.  We left later than anticipated (my fault because things took a lot longer than I anticipated that they would) and we arrived slightly after 9:00.  But we all sat and chatted for a little while before heading off to bed.

We got a nice and early start to the morning and helped finish up projects that Mom and Dad had been working on completing.  Holes in walls filled in or created.  Shelves built and moved.  A trip to the post office in town.  Tools sorted out and packed away.  I had a fun morning, mostly just following one or the other of my parents around and helping however I could.  I know there was a lack of structure that was frustrating to other people, but I was just so tickled to be around my family that nothing was going to bother me.  Not humid weather.  Not random project progress.  Not spiders.  Nothing.  I had a good morning.

Mom and Dad left slightly after noon to start their long drive back to Wisconsin and we waved them off.  Justin and I helped Luke and Krista build one more shelf before getting cleaned up and packed up ourselves and ready to head off.  We sat and chatted for a little while before letting them have the house to themselves again.  After a long, hectic week, I understand how wonderful it can be to have a quiet house again.

Trip to Atlanta
Justin and I had planned to hit a mall outside of Atlanta to buy me some new dress pants, since all the pairs in my closet right now either are too big or are from back when I was slender enough to wear them, meaning they’re threadbare and stretched out.  The mall didn’t turn out quite like expected, though, (I’ve never been in a mall that had so many different shoe stores!) and we decided we’d go see a movie.

We found a theatre that was showing Iron Man 2 in Imax and How to Train Your Dragon in 3D and we were going there, when we passed an Atlanta Bread Company directly across from a Barnes and Noble bookstore.  Well, they closed down our Atlanta Bread Company a handful of months ago and it’s one of our very favorite restaurants.  And we love Barnes and Noble.  So we scratched our movie plans and spent an hour wandering around in the bookstore before heading across for sandwiches.  And we enjoyed our time much more than we would have in a movie theatre.

After spending a relaxing evening and morning at a hotel and breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts, we set off for the Georgia Renaissance Festival. We got there probably close to 10:30 and wandered our way all the way around the faire, looking at booths and admiring the crafts and the spectacle.  We watched the joust.  We saw the Flying Debris juggling show.  We saw the Washing Well Wenches.  We saw the Tortuga Twins.  We missed a few acts that aren’t at the fair this year, like Dexter Tripp’s high wire.  I got some flowers stained onto my leg with henna.  I got to eat a turkey leg. We picked up another item from Bronze Age Studios to match the fountain that we bought from them previously.

It was a whole lot of fun.  And I caked on the sunscreen and wore a light cotton shirt with sleeves and a hat and came home without any sunburn.  I’m a little sun-kissed, but not at all burned.  With my complexion, I call that a win.

Plus, it was just so much fun wandering around the faire, looking at all the different things to look at – people and artwork and everything else.  I laughed at the shows, held my breath at the joust, drooled over everything in the Casta Diva shop.  And we left close to 4:00 to start our trek home, arriving at our front door a little after 9:30, I think.  We unpacked, showered, and got ready for bed.

And now it’s Monday and I wish I had another day in my weekend to recover from my weekend.  But no such luck.  Back to work with me!

I’ll try to put up a few pictures from our weekend later tonight or tomorrow.

Yesterday at church, a reporter from the local newspaper came to the service and took photos so he could write an article about the “Shoes for Soles” project that we did.  It was “Barefoot Sunday” and everyone was encouraged to bring a pair of shoes to donate and go barefoot for the rest of the service.  The church collected over a thousand shoes to send out to people in Haiti and Rowanda.

The front of the newspaper today is 2/3 covered in a picture of the piano player’s foot.  And I’m standing in the background—blurry, but still vaguely recognizable as me.  The article that’s supposed to be on page 10 – 11 isn’t actually anywhere to be found in the paper, but maybe it’ll be out tomorrow.   I really don’t know what’s going on there.  But hey!  I’m on the cover of the newspaper!

I was invited to the 9:00 meeting that the director of my department holds on Mondays.  I was invited to this meeting once before and it turned out well, but it’s always a little scary being invited to a meeting with the “big dogs.”  This meeting turned out well for me again – I was given an award for my hard work on my projects lately.   There are three levels of awards:  bronze, silver, and gold.  Bronze awards come with a set of free tickets to a movie theatre in Savannah.  (Not terribly useful to us since it’s about an hour away from home.  I have four of those tickets in my purse right now.)  Silver awards come with a $50 voucher to the Wal-Mart close to the company grounds.  (And it really only works at that specific Wal-Mart.)  And Gold awards come with a $300 bonus check.

I was awarded a Silver award at the meeting.  $50 to spend at Wal-Mart!  It’s pretty exciting.

As a side-note, I received a Bronze award in January and again in February.  I was thinking I’d work on a trend and see if I could get one every month of the year.  (Who deserves a promotion?  I do!)    I didn’t get on in March, but I figure getting a Silver award makes up for both March and April.  Don’cha think?

On my way back to my desk from the meeting, I passed my lead.  (Or co-lead?  I’m not totally sure where he fits on the current chain-of-command, actually.)  He took a double-take and said, “Kylene, you’re shrinking!  Is that from Zumba?  I almost didn’t recognize you!”  It made me laugh, especially because he had to back-track and explain that he meant it in a good way and not at all badly . . . he’s very concerned about being proper to women in the workplace.  I have no idea what I’m doing differently from Friday when he saw me last, but made me feel really nice.

By the way, the scale on Saturday said I weighed 213.5 pounds, with shoes on.  That’s down 3 pounds from last week and about 19 pounds from my starting weight.  And I’m on day 29 of logging my food in a row!  If I can make it all the way through today and tomorrow (and really, why wouldn’t I?) then I can call and schedule my massage.  How awesome is that?!

But I’ve run up to the end of my lunch hour so I’ve got to go ahead and post this.  I hope you’re all having a fantastic Easter Monday!

So I went home and asked Justin to rub my leg.  And he did and it was wonderful.  It hurt, but it felt better.  And then he covered me in blankets and let me sleep until about 9:30, when he offered me food left over from our anniversary dinner (baby back ribs, mashed potatoes, and cheese biscuits).  I ate delicious food, poked at my computer a few minutes (gotta log my food so I can get my massage), and curled back up for sleep again.

When Justin came to bed, I asked him to massage my leg again, and he’s a wonderful man because he rubbed my leg again.  And then I was out for the night.

When my alarm rang this morning at 6:00, I wouldn’t have minded sleeping for a few more hours, but I have multiple projects on the table right now, so I had to get moving.  And when I got out of bed and stood on my leg, it didn’t hurt at all.  AT ALL!  It’s completely better.  I have some bruising, but that’s probably related to all the scratches on my legs from the yard work over the weekend.

I’m hearing again and again that what I should do the next time I get a cramp is to stand on the leg or pull my toes up toward my knees.  Both options sound terrible, but apparently they’re wonderful once the pain stops, and that the pain will stop more quickly and result in less residual pain.  So I guess if it happens again, I’ll either have Justin push on my toes or I’ll have to figure out how to get myself out of bed so I can stand up.  But I’m telling you right now I hope it never happens again.  Ever.

To that end, I’m trying to figure out why it happened at all.  There are so many options, but the primary reasons apparently are dehydration or a lack of potassium, magnesium, or calcium.  I thought I had calcium supplements in my multivitamin but turns out that I don’t.  So I have to either increase my dairy intake or start with a supplement.  And I might just do the supplement anyway because this girl doesn’t want osteoporosis.  And I have to figure out what all has potassium in it other than bananas.  And keep on drinking my 64 oz plus of water.

Anyway, since my leg is feeling so much better and since I got a lot of sleep last night and I’m much more rested, I’m having a much better day than yesterday.  I’m actually getting work accomplished and catching up on projects, and with any luck, I won’t have to work on Friday afternoon again.  It depends on how this document goes this afternoon, though.  I was supposed to finish it today, not start it . . . .

But we’re keeping positive!  And I’m going to go step outside for a little while and see what the weather is like.  It’s supposed to be lovely.  The only thing that could make today better would be if I could take the afternoon off and go finish my yard work.

I have been up to things though.  I’ve been working on switching things around for spring.  Saturday afternoon I reorganized the porch closet so I could get to the gardening tools and the grill.   I reorganized the dining room closet to move the scarves and mittens into storage and the picnic supplies and bicycle helmets up front.  I reorganized the hamper drawer at the bottom of the steps, packing away the ice scraper and getting the sun screen, bug spray, and umbrellas up and accessible.  And while I was at it, I reorganized under the kitchen sink because it was just a mess and I wanted to be able to grab Windex without crawling all the way to the back of the cabinet.

Yesterday I organized 3 months of receipts, checking them against the categories they were marked as in my budgeting and finding out how many I’m still missing (about 5, for the whole 3 months).  It’s a long task, but rewarding in the end, when I’ve got envelope after envelope of receipts all organized and in rows.  It makes it really easy, come tax time.  I’ve got everything marked down in my finance program on my computer, so I can search for whatever I need, and then I can go to the envelope for that month and look for the physical receipt and read that.  If I need a receipt, I can find it in under 5 minutes.  It’s a system that requires constant maintenance, but one that can really pay off in the end.

I finished my book for March, but I’m not sure yet what I’d like to read for April.  I’ve got to go look through my bookshelf and see what I haven’t read yet, see if anything sparks any interest.  The last book wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as some of his others.  Maybe I should do a book review for each book I read?  It would be good for my LibraryThing account.  And my GoodReads account, too.  And if I decide to get rid of the book, it’d be good for my BookMooch account, too.

I have a lot of online book-related accounts . . . .

I lost 2 more pounds last week, bringing my current total weight loss to 16 pounds.  I’m very excited about that.

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIII for the last couple weeks, off and on.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL game and I’m having a really wonderful time playing it.  It is, so far, the only game we have for our PS3, but that’s because we bought it to play BluRay discs on, and not for playing video games.  But let me tell you, this game is AMAZINGLY beautiful.  I could sit there just looking at the pretty pictures for hours and be perfectly content.  But there’s also game play and that makes it even better!

I worked a full day again on Friday because they switched up the schedule on me and now I’m behind on a couple of projects.  It’s frustrating.  I keep hoping that I’ll finally catch up to everything, and then they go and move things on me.  I’m getting really frustrated with working more than 40 hours a week.

My allergies are starting to pick up. It’s about the same time as last year, so I’m not terribly surprised.  My eyes itch.  I sneeze a lot.  I’m tired.  I think the grass is out to get me.

And these are just a glimpse of the things that I’m ready to talk about.  There are other things, like improvements to our bedroom and the yard and my photo collection, that I’m not ready to talk about yet because I want to have everything finished before I talk about it.  But we’re making good progress on those things and I hope to have more news on those soon.

Until then, I just have this one last thing for today:

Two years ago today, I stood on shaking knees and pinched toes with sweat dripping down the middle of my back, between friends and family on one side and a gazebo on the other, with candles that kept being blown out by the wind, across from the most wonderful man I’ve ever met, who promised to support and protect me, and who slid a ring as far as it could go onto my stress-swollen finger.  We danced our first dance to music I can’t remember, and his grandfather cut in before the end of the song.  We celebrated and smiled and danced and ate and had a wonderful time with our most precious friends and family.  And then we cleaned up and went home before the rain started.

Since then, we’ve gone through sicknesses and job troubles, celebrations and parties, days when communication failed and days when we worked together in prefect synchronization, days when there wasn’t enough money and days when there was more money than we expected, days when the world in my head didn’t make sense, but he stuck beside me anyway, days when we didn’t have the strength to get out of bed, but we pulled and pushed each other up and stood on our feet and helped each other make it through the day.

People keep making comments about us being newlyweds and honeymooning and that the glow will eventually fade, but we believe that the honeymoon is the rest of the marriage and that we’re the ones actually doing it right.  He brings me flowers when he goes to the grocery store.  I wake him up in the morning with cuddles and kisses.  We call each other at noon and again when we leave work, and sometimes more than that just to hear each other talk.

I love you, Justin Barnett, and I am so happy to be your wife!  Let’s keep it going for another 80 years or so!

I’m having a terrible day.  It started out okay – I got up and showered and ready to go to work.  I got into my car, pulled out of the driveway, and the front of my car scraped along the driveway in a way entirely unlike it’s supposed to.  So I got out, went back inside for a flashlight, and came back out to my car to look at my tires.  And, as luck would have it, my front passenger tire is completely flat.  Not just sort of flat.  It’s COMPLETELY flat.

So I got back into my car, backed up, and drove back into my driveway.  And ran the side of my car into the mailbox, leaving a long white stripe of paint along its path.  I pulled back out, adjusted, parked again, and went back inside.  Justin heard me come back into the house, so he was waiting for me upstairs when I came in and said, “I’m having a really awful morning.”

He came out to look at the damage and sent me off to work in his car.  He’s working from home today.  I had to stop for gas and I vowed, on my way to the gas station, that if the car ran out of gas before I got to the pump, I was going to STAY HOME.

I made it to the gas station, and I made it all the way to work, and I got to my desk 20 minutes later than I was supposed to get there.  Fortunately, because I was at work for and hour and a half longer yesterday than normal because I was supporting a delivery, no one was at all upset about it.

At lunch, I was supposed to go to an event so I could write about it for a newsletter.  It’s at another building here, and I had to drive around to get to it, but when I got there, my badge won’t let me into the building.  And no one was answering their phones so they could help me get in.  So I missed my event.  And I had to go buy lunch because I was supposed to get lunch at the event and didn’t bring one with me.

Now, on the up-side of things, Justin was able to stay home and I was able to take his car.  He said that a lot of the paint came off and I’ll probably be able to get more of it off with some more work.  (I think that’s what he said.  I was so distracted by the thought that it might come off that I lost the rest of it.)  When I got to work late, I found a parking spot right in front of the gate so I had less of a walk.  It is a really beautiful day out today, so it was nice weather to be standing outside of a gate trying to figure out how to get to my meeting.  I had a yummy and not too calorie-heavy grilled chicken wrap from Sonic for lunch (with apple slices for snack later).

I finished a project as far as I can for the moment and have another one standing by to complete entirely.  I have music practice tonight and we’re learning a new version of a hymn that I’ve been listening to several times today and it’s helping me stay positive (“It is well”).  And because I’ve worked two and a half hours of overtime already this week, I’m taking an hour and a half of vacation tomorrow morning and staying home from work.  Because I had seven hours of overtime last week and I don’t really care for the extra money this week.  Because working an 11 hour day on a Friday should be rewarded by sleeping in on the following Friday.  And because I’m just having a heck of a week.

Did I tell you I dropped my mug?  I don’t think I did.  It was on Tuesday; I was washing the mug I use for making my oatmeal every morning and for soup and other microwaving needs at the office.  It was a white mug I got when we went to Life in Salt Lake City (was it in 1998 or 2000?) and said “Alliance Youth” on the side of it in lovely blue writing.  It was a great mug, perfect for microwaving my oatmeal, very slick looking, and I liked it.  But it slipped from my hand while I was washing it at work and it broke into a bunch of pieces on the floor.  And I stood there looking at the pieces and cried.  Over a stupid mug.  A mug I liked, granted, but it was just a mug.  It didn’t particularly matter that I’d gotten it at Life or that I’d had it for about 10 years; I liked it because it was pretty and the perfect size.  And I was sad that I’d broken it.

Monday I was at work at 6:30 to work on a project that no one asked for until today.  Tuesday I broke my mug.  Wednesday I was at work until 6:30, finishing up a project for a guy who was out of the office all day because his kids were off school for St. Patrick’s Day.  Today, well, has been today.  I think I need a day off.

So that’s the plan.