Posts Tagged ‘what i did with my day’

And that’s it for October

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Oy, a week gone already?

Okay, since last week, my back has gotten a lot better.  Of course, Justin’s back has been killing him in a completely different way, but he’s been sitting on the  heat pack.  We’ll go back to the chiropractor’s office again tomorrow.

Work has been nuts, but it’s only going to get worse as we go through November.  And more on that later, probably.

I did not, however, work on Friday because we had a party here that evening and Justin and I spent the day getting ready.  I’ll do some pictures at the end.  A bunch of geeks we know get together every month or so to play card games.  We switch between who hosts, but it was our turn this time, and it was a whole lotta fun!  I cut a ton of bats out and hung them from the ceiling.  Justin wanted to dress up as Count van Count from Sesame Street, so I dressed up as Countess von Backwards (I’m not making her up) complete with the purple skin and all.  Can I say?  That was a lot more trouble than it was worth.

Anyway, we had Indiana Jones and a cowgirl, a Valkyrie and a dead Norse warrior, a couple renaissance girls, a hippie, an Arabian prince, and a guy who said he was Jimmy Buffett but who just decided last minute to come to the party.  And we had lots of food, played Gloom, roasted marshmallows and told stories over the fire, and had, all in all, a really fantastic time.

Meaning, after all that, on Saturday Justin and I were completely zonked and didn’t get out of pajamas all day.  We showered and put on clean pajamas.  I spent the whole day reading a library book that was due.  And that was it.  We didn’t even get around to cleaning until after church on Sunday.  And then we had friends over again on Sunday (sort of a recurring event) and we played a game of Munchkin with them.

So much of last week was spent getting ready for the party.  I spent a lot of time cutting out bats and getting the house ready.  It was definitely worth it because a lot of people, even kids trick-or-treating tonight, commented on how great the house looks.  But it’s a relief to not be working on that today.

Anyway, stepping back to talk about work for just a minute, we’ve got six or seven projects in the works for November, so it’s going to be crazy busy.  And add to that, a job offer was dropped on my lap today and if I say “yes” the guy offering it would want me to start transitioning over to it as soon as possible — like next week.  It’s an other department at work and it *sounds* really exciting, but I haven’t decided yet.  And the guy offering it asked me to not talk about it, but I think he meant not talk about it AT WORK and I’m pretty darn sure none of my coworkers read this.  (And if they do, they haven’t said anything yet, and I don’t expect them to start now.)  I have to let him know by the end of the week, so you’ll all know as soon as I decide, too.

And now pictures from the party!

Justin as Count van Count from Sesame Street

The Count and Countess -- SO MUCH PURPLE

A view of the dining room decorations

A creepy sofa table vignette

The skull seemed like a necessary element

Ghosts hung out by the dining room light

Bats hung out in the entryway and hall

There were mice along the floorboards

Our late-Norseman

Friends enjoying a game of Gloom

More of our friends

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October!

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

October hit on Saturday and it was like the weather looked around, blinked, and then went ‘Oh!  Riiiiiiight.  OCTOBER.  Sorta, kinda fall-like, right?  Riiiiiiiiight.”  And overnight lows started dipping into the 50s and 60s and the daytime highs dropped from 90 somethings to the low 80s.  The skies cleared up, the afternoon showers disappeared, and the sky turned such a brilliant color of blue that I can’t help but look at it every time I go outside.  Especially since the sun hasn’t been burning my retinas now every time I step outside.

Of course, this means that when I was outside on Saturday, the temperature was so wonderful I didn’t even think to put on sunscreen and got a toasting across my face.  And it also means that I’m driving to work in the dark, wearing a sweater or jacket in from the car, and then carrying that sweater out to the car over my arm when I leave work in the warmth of the afternoon.

It’s wonderful!  Granted, I miss the north.  I miss the colors of the leaves and the fact that you’ve all been wearing sweaters and enjoying this kind of cool weather for about a month by now.  I finally went and got soup at the store yesterday because it’s finally getting cool enough that I can really enjoy hot soup.  And people made fun of my arm warmers because they’re jealous.  Obviously.  I mean, my arm warmers are pink! And fluffy!  And, most importantly, keep my arms warm!

I’ve been opening the window on my side of the bedroom when I go to bed to let in the cool air at night.  It gets warm again during the day, but at night, that cool breeze is delightful.  Unfortunately, my allergies have been acting up since the weather changed, but hopefully it’ll pass soon.  Or, you know, I’ll refill my very expensive allergy pills.  But I’d rather not.

The change of the weather also means that we’re heading into a very busy couple months.  October started out with Family Day at my workplace.  It’s great for families with children who can go play on the moon walk rides and be entertained by the midway games and have the patience to stand in line for a burlap bag and slide down a big slide.  Justin and I stood in line for the Ferris wheel for more than an hour (toasting my face), got some cotton candy, and then went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant.

This coming Saturday we’re helping at the Habitat for Humanity building project doing yardwork.  The Saturday after that is book club, and since it’s the 1-year anniversary of the club, we’ll probably be hosting a movie party at our house.  The week of the 16th is the local Seafood and Arts festival.  And the Friday after that, the last Friday of the month, we’re having a game night party at our house with a bunch of our local geeky friends.

And that’s just October!   November and December are going to be even more busy, I’m sure.  But I don’t mind that much, so far.  I’m looking forward to spending time with my friends and enjoying this fantastically cool weather.  I hope you’re all doing the same!

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Haircut!

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

Justin and I went to Savannah today to get his hair cut and I decided, since we were going, that I would get mine done, too.  It’s been somewhere between 6 months to a year since I got my hair cut professionally, and the ends were starting to worry me.  Plus, it sounded like a nice treat.

So!  You get before and after photos.  (Ignore that I haven’t lost any weight and . . . do I always have those bags under my eyes?)

Front view: before the haircut

Back view: before the haircut

Front view: after the haircut

Back view: after the haircut

It’s kinda hard to tell, but she took off about 4 inches at the longest part, and obviously  much more than that along the front.  It’s not showing it great, but there’s feathering along the front from starting under my chin down the length of the front, and then there’s a long layer in the back.  I love it!  I love the feathering in the front and that the ends are nice and smooth.  And it all still pulls back into a ponytail, though I’m sure I’m going to find some hairstyles that I’m used to doing that will suddenly have nice framing locks hanging loose.

And Justin’s haircut was the same one he normally gets — just cutting off all the long bits so it’s not so fluffy anymore.  :)  We’re both very excited about our cuts!

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Delicious day

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Today I didn’t work overtime, which was what I was expecting to do all week until suddenly I wasn’t going to have to work overtime!  It really came as a surprise.  So today, instead of working overtime, I slept in.  Which was especially good because I was up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach that felt like I had swallowed tacks, either as a side-effect from my flu shot on Thursday or because I gave in to my craving for Cheetos.  (Delicious radioactive orange chemical and carbohydrate crunchies!)

But sleeping in felt wonderful and my stomach felt fine when I woke up.  I went downstairs and I did yoga for about half an hour, which is half an hour longer than I’ve done yoga in the last couple months.  My goal for the next couple weeks:  get back on track with the Couch to 5K program (we got out of that when I hurt my knee), walk three of the other days of the week when we’re not running, and get back to doing my yoga.  My flexibility is completely shot.

We showered, dressed, breakfasted, relaxed a couple minutes, and then tidied up the house a little bit.  I sat down to write the post here about credit reports (you really should check yours) and watched some TV with Justin.  And then we went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, which we’d put off earlier in our tidying, and I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker and worked on making a pie.  We had apples and pears that were past their prime, so I baked them into a pie following this recipe.  Delicious!  And I love baking.  I love the patience of it and the intricacies of it and just the movements that go into pealing and slicing apples and mixing that with sugar, flour, and spices, and filling in a pie crust.  It’s like singing, except I get to eat it in the end.  And that analogy probably doesn’t work unless you understand how I feel when I’m singing.

Moving on.  I got that started and asked Justin to make sure it got out of the oven okay, described what it should look like in the end, and then I went for my walk.  See?  Goal:  yoga and walking.  Accomplished!  I took an umbrella with me because it looked like rain and about 10 minutes away from getting back to the house, it did start to rain.  I ran into three women who were sheltering beneath a tree, waiting to see if it would stop.  I told them I didn’t think it was going to end very soon, and they started back to their homes.  We ran into Justin about a minute later, coming to look for me with the biggest umbrella we own.  Because he’s wonderful like that and he wasn’t sure if I’d taken an umbrella with me.

We got home and I changed into dry clothes so we could go to our chiropractor appointment, saw an enormous rainbow on our way, and then we came home and started meatloaf for dinner and caught up more on television shows that started last week.  He’s been catching up on How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family and I’ve been watching NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles.

And then, finally, we got a piece of that pie!  It was amazing!

And really, I’m just writing all this because it was a wonderfully relaxed, delicious kind of day and I wanted to write it down.

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Grumpiness and tasks for my evening

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

My life is SOOO exciting, guys.  Yesterday, I went to work, I went home, Justin and I went for a jog, made dinner, and watched Castle, and then I went to bed.  I don’t know how I handle all the excitement.

I’m feeling grumpy today, which is probably evident in my writing, but I have no good reason for being such a cranky pants.  I went to bed early.  Work isn’t terribly crazy, regardless of how it was predicted.  Life at home is great.  Justin is awesome.  The weather the last couple days was nice and cool (in the 70s) with rain, and everything felt wonderfully fall-like.  I think we’re back up into the 80s today (I haven’t been outside since 7am) but the promise of cool weather was refreshing.  I’m not hormonal.  I’m just grumpy.  And grumpy about being grumpy.

Today is Thursday, which means that I have my evening free while Justin plays online with the boys.  My To Do list has been piling up, so I’ll probably look at that.  I might even do something off the list.  Or I’ll go downstairs and sit on the couch watching Lie to Me.  It’s a fun show.  And really, if my options are “watch entertaining television” or “download copies of our credit report and check for problems” then television is probably going to win.  Unless I decide to do them both at the same time . . . .

Did you know that you can download/print copies of your credit report for free once a year?  I have to go look up the website that I used last time, but it is entirely free.  It’s not your credit SCORE, mind you.  It’s just the list of your accounts and who’s been looking at your information and if you’ve been dinged on anything like late payments or anything like that in the last couple years.  And it’s important to know that information so you can work on improving your score.  If, for example, you find out that there’s an account on there that you’ve NEVER heard of before – that’s a problem.  The score, we all know, is what people look at for interest rates and loans and all that, but it’s built, among other things, off the information from those reports.  There are three.  And you can download them once a year for free.  It’s a law or something.  I dunno.  But it’s important information to know.  The score is also important, but I haven’t ever been able to find that for free and unless we’re actually going to be making a big purchase, I don’t need to know.

So I’ll probably download those tonight.  And then I can tell you where I got the information and anything else that I think might be important to know after I remember how the whole thing works.  It’s been about 2 years since I printed our last one, I think.

And that’s the news from here.  I’m going to go outside for a couple minutes and see if it’s nice.  Even if it isn’t, it’s going to be refreshing to step away from my desk for a minute or two.

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