Lovely, lovely day it will be today!! I'm so excited to bask in the sunshine out back on the deck. Supposed to be around 65-70! Perfect!! :-D

Thinking about recent life events, I've decided I need to put some effort to rid the negativity that has sprouted in my life. One way to get rid of negative forces is to fight it with positive forces. Since the major negativity in my life happens to be a person who's negativity I can't fight, why not spread some positive to others?! I shall make it a point to do something nice for someone at least once a day. Whether it be just a smile or some small gesture of kindness - even anonymously! I do so enjoy to do things for people, but I've been so caught up in the negative events I've been lax. It will definitely make someone feel better, which in turn makes me feel better and the positive energy will surround me. Although I don't expect the negativity to disappear completely, as we all need adversity to enjoy the good, it should dwindle away to a tolerable amount. Its amazing how good I feel just thinking about it! :-D

Well, I hosed that last post up!! So bad I can't even edit it. The last bit should say: thanks again Colin and Ariel for the link! A water spirit is: Love, emotions, and relationships fill your days. You are constantly thinking about others, especially the ones you love. Others consider you a romantic and a fool. You give yourself to others, but don't give too much, even the breadmaker must eat.

I'm a Water Spirit
Thanks again Colin and
Which tarot card are you? Thanks Colin and Ariel for the link!

I had to run to our local off-base office this morning, so while I was out, I stopped off to my favorite burrito place, New York Burrito. There was a older gentleman in front of me putting in his order. When the girl employee asked “would you like white or Spanish rice?” he asked, “What’s the difference?” The thought that ran through my head was “Ummm… let’s see… white would be plain, and Spanish would be seasoned? Do I have that right?” I just about giggled and must have had a smirk on my face because the girl looked back at me and almost lost it. She covered herself really well, and answered politely. Don’t you just love questions about the obvious or people thinking out loud (but expecting an answer)? It’s an absolute glorious day out there today… 53 degrees and sunny! I really had to force myself to come back to work. On the way to 60 tomorrow and 65 on Friday! WOOHOO! :-D I know what I’m going to be doing on Friday! Basking in the sunshine! Can’t wait!! Pretty boring day here at work today. Playing catch-up and doing things that are not exciting in the least. The day is dragging on and on and on. Sigh.

See which Greek Goddess you are.

Thanks Colin for the link.

On the brighter side of things, I watched a fun movie. It was called Greenfingers, which was a Brittish film based on a true story of prisoners in a special prison system who become gardeners. It had a lot of heart and fun characters.

Welcome to Karen's therapy session! Warning: today's post contains a lot of family shit, so you may not want to read it. The saga continues. Mom just came and told me some things that Kathy said to her last night, about what a horrible Mother she was… then Kathy’s husband Ellis (the world’s largest ass) just called and gave Mom more of it. I can’t believe that they would have the nerve to talk to my Mom that way. The funniest thing is – is my Dad sat there and listened to Kathy spout off to Mom and didn’t say a word! I don’t know what the hell my Dad was thinking?! I’m madder than hell right now for them speaking to Mom that way. I want to call them up and tell them just what I think, but I’ve promised Mom that I won’t. She said it won’t do any good and I know she’s right. They’re going to think what they want (and most of it is anger on their part) and we’re not sinking to their level. I can’t say how much it hurts me to see Mom hurt like this. I wish I could take it away. What kind of a man sends his wife and child off on weekends?! He’s a man, he makes the money, and therefore, it’s his apartment. Complete, selfish ASS. Let’s not even mention all the months they lived in Cincinnati and California when Kathy was the breadwinner. That must have been OK!! She never kicked him out when she wanted friends over. Ellis could live here for 9 months, under Mom and Dad’s roof, never lifting a finger, eating all their food, taking advantage of heat, showers, laundry service, etc., then turn around and treat Mom like shit. Ungrateful bastard. But the funny thing is – he’d never speak to my Dad like that. I can’t figure out why Dad is allowing them to talk to Mom like that. If we ever said anything derogatory or smart-mouthed in Mom’s direction, we’d get Tabasco put on our tongues and be punished. Mom is FINALLY seeing the light of how manipulative Kathy is. It blows my mind just how manipulative she is. I know we all manipulate to a certain extent, but not as maliciously as she does. Why do they have to be so nasty?! Then they expect others to treat them nicely and do things for them?!

How is it that one person can bring such turmoil and wreak such havoc in a household that was so peaceful? It blows my mind. I have truly tried my hardest to be more positive about my sister Kathy and what impact she has on my life. I decided not to let seeing her manipulating everyone in my family effect me. I wish I could totally, but I just can’t. About 2 months ago, we came to a compromise that her and her child would stay one night on the weekend, and part of the next day. This would be Friday night. Well, in the past 8 weeks, she’s managed to come up with lame excuses three times to stay the entire weekend. She has a husband. She has a home. She needs to stay with her husband and her husband needs to be a father to his child and a husband to his wife. She has problems, yes. Don’t we all? The point is that we try to face our problems and solve them, not run away. She comes over, sits her ass in a recliner, hands the baby off to Mom and Dad. She never cooks, never cleans, and Mom does her laundry (including husband’s and child’s). Mom hasn’t been happy that Kathy keeps over staying her welcome, because 1. she’s tired and 2. Kathy is not sticking to the compromise and causing contention. Kathy goes to Dad and asks if she can stay another night. Dad, being soft hearted and not really having a clue that he’s being manipulated, says ‘sure’. Not even getting a clue what its doing to the rest of us. Yesterday, it started festering and coming to a head. Mom tried to get Dad to understand how hard it is to have them here all the time. Dad doesn’t get it, plain and simple. He came and asked me why it’s so hard to have Kathy and the baby here. I explained again, but he walked away saying, “I just don’t understand.” I love my sister and her baby, but they have a home. This is my home – although I surely wish I were financially able to get my very own home – but its not possible right now and there is the fact that my rent money helps M&D out. I help them out any way I can. I hate contention more than anything. I don’t want to cause any problems, but my health just can’t take having a crying baby here 24 hours a day on weekends when I get the majority of my rest. While it is true that Kathy doesn’t come downstairs (where I live) when I’m home, I can still hear the noise and I can still feel her negative energy. Short visits are fine, just can’t take the long ones. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I just left to talk my rented movies back to the video store and Mom thought I was leaving. She got a terrified look on her face, which broke my heart. She’s caught in the middle and it hurts me to see her hurt. I hate it.

I got a call from my nephew Travis today! He's back in Detroit and will be coming home on Wednesday! So excited for him to be home again. He was packing his bags and playing that song "I'm leaving on a jet plane.." Woohoo!

I've decided to remove the ZListers link and logo from my site. They were supposed to link to me ages ago but never did. :-( Maybe just an oversight... but then maybe I'm just not up to their 'standards'... so I'm saying bye, bye. I am very sorry to see that TheOtherCheek has called it quits though. I really enjoyed her blog. I'm leaving the link to her site up for a while in hopes that she will return one day. A storm is a brewing outside today. Dark and cloudy, ugh! I want SPRING, damnit! The weekend did get off to a weird start. I went in for an ultrasound of my uterus, which was fine... it hurt like hell because the technician had to press really hard and with being tender in the first place and having a very FULL bladder. Good thing I'd heard that this would hurt, so I prepared myself by taking a pain pill. Then, she tells me that she can't see anything, so she needed to do "inside" lovely. OK, was a brave girl and sucked it up, so thankful that I'd taken a 'good' pain pill so I didn't much care at that point. Was weird, very weird. But cool to see things I've never seen before. Weekend was totally made when I got to talk to J for a while last night. What a hunk of a man! ;-) Sigh.

you have an ominosity quotient of six. you are really ominous. find out your ominosity quotient.

Check out this website: Colorgenics for your profile.

England here I come!!! Now if April 30 would come faster! · Passport – CHECK · Tickets – CHECK · Big suitcase – CHECK · Money – CHECK · Great and wonderful people to stay with – CHECK · Dresses for P & E’s wedding – CHECK (choice of two depending on which will look better) · New jeans – CHECK · Rain jacket – CHECK · New shoes – CHECK · Digital camera & Smartmedia – CHECK · Extra Smartmedia memory card - CHECK I’m just so excited right now I can’t stand it!!!!! I let out a big whoop when I saw that my passport came in the mail today! I’m so ready for this trip except for some minor things like travel bottles, borrow Linda’s adapter for my hair dryer and curling iron, some new tops, etc. Hope I don’t forget anything! Either I’m way too excited or way anal thinking of the little things this far in advance, but I gotta be prepared! I’ve got my luggage worked out even. Going to use my backpack as my purse, my big suitcase, then will take a collapsible heavy bag for the loot I’m bringing home. I’ll be able to carry that on the plane… only problem would be if I bought too much loot, but in that case, I’d ship some home via mail.

I saw the movie “The Sixth Day” over the weekend. The concept of the movie – cloning people bothered me at first, but now I’m thinking maybe its not such a bad idea… at least as far as work is concerned. I sire could have used another me yesterday. Was one of those days when I wished my name wasn’t Karen. Today has been busy too, just not as bad. I even have a chance to take a break and blog! No thanks necessary. ;-) I went to a mini-workshop on change Monday night. It was based on the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson. Although the instructors weren’t ‘certified’, the workshop really got me thinking about how boxed in I can be. Everyone has their moments when change seems like the worst thing that can happen. I’m better at change if I make the decision to change and not be forced – must be the rebel in me. I am always looking for new and better ways to improve my processes here at work, to achieve simplicity and time savings. I am so predictable and have such tunnel vision sometimes its amazing I make any progress at all. Although I have changed a great deal over the years – I’d say for the better, I can still be such a stickler for not wanting anything to change. I suppose that a person can only deal with so much change at a time, then they adjust and are able to make more changes as they go along. The ‘try something new’ every day is surely going to bring about some good changes. If you haven’t started it – I recommend that you do! Even if you start out doing one new thing a week, its better than staying stagnant! Enough rambling… must get back to work!

Welcome Colin, my good friend to the Blogging world!! :-)

How idiotic and sick do you have to be to hit a man with your car, drive home with him in your windshield, then let him bleed to death in your garage??!! Then after he dies, dump his body in park! Check this out. Part 2. Sick, sick, sick. This woman's lawyer is trying to make it sound less horrible than it is.

Ever had the dream when you have to pee really, really bad and all you do in the dream is try and find a bathroom?? Every twist, every turn, you're looking for a bathroom. When you finally find one, you're at the end of a loooong line of women waiting to do the same with only one stall? You're in too deep of a sleep to wake up and realize you really do have to pee! Hate that!

Mindless entertainment is what I need! Perpetual Bubble Wrap and Online Etch-a-Sketch. Thanks Cuddles for the links :-)

I decided to go shopping with Mom again today. She had a few more errands and was feeling lonely so I went with her. I've been looking for some new jeans and can't find the brand I want - Britannia jeans. They fit me good in all the right places. We looked all over Ogden and couldn't find squat. So, we finally decided to try one last store, where we did find some similar and they fit nicely!! After 4 hours of searching, I bought 3 pairs (one light blue, one dark blue and one black). I'm set now, hopefully! Wouldn't it be my luck that next time I'm out shopping that I'll stumble onto a store that carries these brands - now that I've spent $132 on 3 pair of jeans?! Yes, that would be my luck, all right! Why is it that what seems like would be such a simple task turns out to be a nightmare? Never can find what you're looking for when you want or need it! I think I've come quite accustomed to online shopping and no hassles. Wish I could try on jeans online! ;-)

My day started out by cleaning, then going to the doctor, which I waited an hour to see him (just to talk to him for 10 minutes!!), then went to my eye doctor and got my new contacts, took Mom to lunch (Mexican! Cha, cha, cha!!) then ran errands. I am done in. I feel like I've ran a marathon. My bills are paid, my groceries, etc. are put away... now I can veg! :-)

Just got back from a walk across the street to the restaurant. I went with Nancy, Jan, and Kelly just to grab a salad from the salad bar. I was first in line, I got my to-go container, put some lettuce in it, then all of the sudden, this woman comes from behind all four of us and butts in front of me. She said, “hello, how are you?” I was startled, she talked like she knew me, and maybe I just didn’t recognize her. She starts getting some salad fixings, my first thought was that she must just be getting some toppings. Then she said, “Oh, I missed the lettuce. So she butted in back of me, right in front of Kelly. She got some lettuce then came back in front of me and started complaining that she’d gotten some chunks of lettuce, so she shoved her way back behind Kelly now, in front of Nancy. I finished getting my toppings, then waited for the others to finish. This woman all the while chatting with everyone. I was going to say something to her about butting, but she seemed to know us… so nothing was said. After we left the restaurant, Kelly asked me who my rude friend was. I about cracked up! No one knew who this woman was!! I suppose by being nice to us, making us think that she was with us, she got away with crowding in line. Kinda funny when you think about it… all of us wanting to say something to her and none of us doing it. If it happens again, you can be sure we’ll say something… what a smoothy! If I tried it, it wouldn’t work.

This week is the week for doctor appointments. I went to my yearly "grand opening" on Monday and got sorta bad news but will have to have tests to find out what's happening but since this doctor insn't on my bloody list of "preferred" doctors, none of the tests will be paid for by the insurance so I have to go to my GP tomorrow and have him order the tests. Sigh. Yesterday I went for my 6-week follow up with my Rheumologist. He and I agreed that we'll try another medication that is aggressive. He ordered more blood tests, always enjoy getting poked... but not in the arm. ;-) I've joined my friends P & E in a blog called Something New. Its where a team of us writes about new things we tried that day. Cool concept and it sure makes life better, I think. I'm in a rut and could sure use new experiences in my life. Puts a new spin on my outlook on life. The link is now on the side bar.

What Fruit Are You?? (thanks Cuddles and FluffyMuppet for the link)
Strawberry: 40/100 Pear: 20/100 Banana: 60/100 Tomato: 25/100 Lemon: 0/100

Take the What Fruit Are You? test by Ellen and Aaron!

Was pretty much a bum today. I did manage to get my cleaning done, but my hands and one wrist were killing me by the time I got done. Shouldn't have cleaned at all... one of those hindsight situations. Hands and wrist are much better now, since I rested most of the day. I watched all the shows that I'd taped during the week, and even managed to take a short nap :-) I'm hoping that I'll feel good enough to work out tomorrow, I sure miss it when I can't work out. Its frigid cold here, according to my new WeatherBug. This is a program that I downloaded at WeatherBug You put in your zip code and it brings up all the latest weather and alerts. It even puts the temp down on your task bar. Why does I find this cool? I don't know... just do. ;-)

I think I blinked and missed this week too! It was so crazy at work, and I was busy getting some things done in my personal life. I got my trip to England booked! YAHOOOO! I got such a good deal on the tickets, I bought me a digital camera as well as a web cam! I'm feeling quite geeky this week! I haven't got my digital camera yet, should by Monday though. My web cam is up and running and is so cool! Not that I like watching myself sit here and type on the computer, but to chat online with J and other friends! Its so great to be able to see facial expressions... emocations are great but can't quite capture all emotions. Went to Salt Lake and saw the psychic today. She said its going to be a bumpy year and people in my family are going to have health problems, especially my Dad. She sees some really great things in the near future as well... I'm due, I think! I'm not going to sit back and wait for things to happen, I'm going to keep working towards my goals and hopefully I'll get to where I want and need to be. My friend Robin and I had a good time in Salt Lake. After seeing the psychic we went to lunch then walked around the Trolley Square mall for a while. My great friend Brian worked on my computer today (while I was playing in Salt Lake) and got it running really good. I can actually get on the internet without it disconnecting a zillion times. Modem drivers and other software problems was causing it. Thanks Bri!!!

Brian just summoned me over to his cube. He just got back from San Diego, CA and had a gift for me. Its a stuffed toy of Shamoo (the Killer Whale) and her baby. They pull apart by a string and the baby vibrates and comes back to her mamma and they kiss! Sooo cute :-) The thing I REALLY like about this toy is the vibrating feature… set it in my lap and I’ll get a nice thrill. ;-) woohoo!

I spent a good hour on the phone with MSN Tech Support this morning trying to help me solve my constant dropped connections. Sigh. We've tried everything short of 1) getting a new modem and 2) checking for dirty phone lines. Lovely. I don't know what the deal is but its like a quest... will try a new modem next. I'll get a better one than I've got so I won't feel so bad if it doesn't solve the problem totally. At least it will rule that problem out. I've been having problems sending replies and forwards and even new messages at times through MSN. So, I followed the instructions on the "patch" which involved uninstalling MS Office 97, installing the erase registry program, then re-installing MS Office. Well folks, it didn't work! I'm tired of talking to tech support so I'll call them on another day. Tired of messing with this bloody thing! Seems like I've been sitting here in front of my PC all day long. I felt like crap this morning and forced myself to work out. Glad I did - felt somewhat better after. :-) What is it about working out that makes a person feel so good? Must be the endorphins and getting all the toxins out of the body by sweating.

Seems my body is under attack again by the Rhuematoid Arthritis monster. I've been achier this past week than I have been for the last month. :-( Still no 'severe' flare ups, but I'm starting to wonder if my medication isn't working as well as another could. Sigh. I go to the doc the first part of March so I'll have a chat with him. He wasn't 100% pleased with this medication at the last visit, but we decided to wait another 6 weeks to see if I would continue to improve. This is only the first of many disease modifying meds I can try.

Where did this week go? I think I blinked and missed it! Nothing too exciting happened at work, just kept busy and unfortunately out of trouble. I need to go shopping and see what fun pranks I can find to play. My friend Robin and I are going to Salt Lake next Friday to see a psychic. We saw her about a year ago and really liked her. She does palm reading and numerology as well as the Terot cards. There's something special about her - not like a lot of psychics out there. I know I can't plan my life around what they say, but she gave a lot of good insight to my life last year. Will be interesting to see what she sees this year. :-) Yesterday, Linda and I played hooky from work. We took the afternoon off and went to lunch then to a movie. We saw "I am Sam". It was a great movie - lot of humor, yet a lot of heart. Better movie than I thought it would be. Sean Penn should definitely win an award for this performance. Spent the day today doing my usual cleaning, then ran some errands and took Mom to lunch. It was a nice day out. :-) I came home and called the travel agent at work to see what she could find for me as far as flights for England! Woohoo! She may not get back to me until Monday though - since they do 'personal' travel as they can. I'm well on my way!!!

I spent the day cleaning and de-cluttering my bedroom. I started on my room, then needed some extra storage space and that led me to the storage room where I had a bunch of old clothes stored. 3 HUGE garbage sacks full of clothes later, I had lots of room! Wow - had no idea I had that many clothes in there. The wardrobe is still 1/2 full of clothes that I will keep... the rest is now filled up with other stuff :-) I went through my curio cabinet and shelves and got rid of several items that held no value or sentiment. The Beanie Babies are packed up in a box where they are safe and won't collect any more dust. Now I'm gonna go crash!

What a lovely weekend its been! We actually hit 38 F yesterday and today was 40! Mostly sunny and a bit overcast, but not bad. I even washed my dirty, grimy car today. Why is it every time I wash my car, a storm decides to come through? I think the universe doesn't like me to have a clean car! Humph. I started to be ambitious today. I feel the need to get rid of some clutter in my bedroom. I started with my bookcase and that's where I ended. I had grand plans to clean my bedroom from corner to corner has fizzled, but I may still get in the mood tomorrow. 4-Day weekends are so great :-) I need more of them... everyone does!

Well, the day that almost every single person dreads is here. Yup, Valentines' Day. I don't dread it although it would be nice to have a real Valentine all my own to celebrate with. So, I concentrate on the people I have in my life that care about me and that I care about. :-) There was a bit of a ripple with my sister Kathy this past week. I changed internet providers over the weekend - Mom had an e-mail on my account and I told her to forward her stuff to a hotmail account, so she did. I got the new e-mail all set up for her and she was happy. I get home on Monday and Mom tells me that Kathy is on the war path and is VERY angry with me for deleting her e-mail account. HUH??!! I had NO clue she had an e-mail on MY internet account. I felt really bad. Kathy, of course, thought I did it on purpose. How would I know?! She never gave me her e-mail and I never asked. I thought she had a free sort of e-mail Kinda hard to do something on purpose when I didn't know about it. I think I have a right to be pissed that she got into my account and created herself an e-mail. But I'll keep my mouth shut about it. I know one thing: with my new internet provider, she has to have my password to create a new account and she's not getting it. But then she probably won't ask. She has a computer of her own as well as a phone line! She's just too lazy to hook it all up after all her moving around the past year. Maybe this will give her some incentive to set it up. Sheesh! OK, enough bitching about her. The work week is finally over! Woohoo! AND I've got a bonus, a 4-day weekend! It better be good cuz its the last one until Memorial Day weekend. Oh, I take that back... I'll have a 8 or 9 day weekend when I go to England! :-D First vacation I've taken in about 10 years (holiday weekends not included).

Sandi is on a kick about pairing me up with a guy here at work. She’s so funny… this is an extremely nice guy, but he just doesn’t do it for me (but she thinks he would definitely ‘do it for me’) *snicker*. Hmmm… I’m not going to go there. She had a meeting with this man this morning, and she kept ‘spacing off’ and thinking all sorts of things that he and I could do together, now that’s scary. She didn’t elaborate on exactly what she was thinking, but I got the idea. Work has been crazy this week. Financials. Need I say more?! My brain is fried! Must go shopping this afternoon to get some Valentines for my loved ones. I can’t believe I spaced it off… not like me to leave things to the last minute, well – OK, its not the ‘last minute’ but close enough.

I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies Friday night... from the TV of course... and I thought they were done well. I didn't like the 'artsy' type stuff, but seeing all the atheletes from all over the world gave me goose bumps. The most incredible part of the show, was of course, the flag of the World Trade Center that they recovered. I had tears rolling down my face as the flag was brought out, as did many others, I'm sure.

Yesterday was bliss. The only ambitious thing I did was work out. I managed to look through my guidebook of Great Britain and have an idea of what I want to see while I'm there, just need to find out if its do-able, then a plan will be set. :-D The sun has been shining brightly but its still been quite cold. I'm tired of the cold. Burrr! Plans for today: work out, laundry, and vegging. Trying to get into the mind set of going back to work tomorrow isn't going to be easy.

Whew! What a day... I got up early, got my cleaning done, spent 2 hours at the new optomitrist. He was very thorough, which impressed me. He dialated my eyes, which I hate but know it was necessary. The reason I went is because my vision has been blurring when I read, and one of the medications I take could effect the vision so I wanted to make sure everything was OK. The Opthamologist I went to in October was supposed to do a full base-line exam before I started taking this medication. Well, come to find out today that that doctor didn't do the FULL exam... I was supposed to have a vision field exam as well, and he didn't do it. I was (and still am) pissed about that. I have to go back to this new doc next week for the vision field exam. Until then, he's given me some new contacts to try thinking that its only a change in my vision and need for new contacts. Kinda what I thought but being the worry-wart that I am, I had to have it checked out. After the eye doc, I went to the county offices and submitted my passport papers! WOOOOHOOOO! England, here I come! Should I warn them?? tee hee My friends that I will be visiting know full well what I'm like and they still want me to come. More of the dream coming a reality!!! I spent the next 2 hours going to the mall, pharmacy, Sam's Club, video store, post office, grocery store and dairy. Then I came home and changed internet providers. Tired of AT&T disconnecting me all the time and the monthly charge doubled and the # of hours dropped by half and they didn't tell me. Pissed me off so I changed to MSN. Hopefully they'll be better... at least they can't drop the number of hours cuz now I've got unlimited... now I may be on this thing more than ever now! When I got home, I got the best surprise. Everyone has cleared out for the weekend (they went to Idaho) leaving me all by myself! Yes, I jumped up and down for joy and screamed YAHOOOO! I haven't had solitude like this for over 18 months. I'm sooooo excited!! Must dos this weekend: 1. Look at the Great Brittan Guide that P&E got me for Xmas and decide what I want to see while I'm over there. 2. Look up something called Leaky Gut Syndrome. My friend gave me an article that said it could be linked to causing Rhuematoid Arthritis. 3. Whatever the hell I want. :-D

Been bad at blogging this week. Been going through some strange emotional roller coaster ride and not sure what caused it – whether its lunar or physical or all of the above. I’m starting to come out of it now, mostly thanks to great friends who listen to me babble like an idiot and give me encouragement to go forward. I hate being so emotional and not knowing why – it’s a total waste of my time. I’d rather be using the energy for good and fun than being a basket case. Getting my hair cut and blonded again tonight, that will make me feel a little better, cover that gray that keeps sprouting up. I’ve inherited my Mom’s genes of going gray early. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I’ve got an eye doc appt to check some blurriness going on, then I’m putting in my papers for my passport for my trip to England! WOOHOO! This weekend I’ll be sorting out where and what I’ll be seeing while I’m there. My dream of going is becoming a reality! :-D

Survived the birthday festivities. It turned out to be nicer than I had imagined. One aunt and cousins didn't show, which I didn't feel bad about, but thought it was rude they didn't at least call before to let Mom know so she didn't make so much food. We had a Mexican Fiesta dinner. Mom made my favorite, (yup, you got it) Cheese Enchiladas. :-) They were quite good - sauce homemade, not from a can. Yum. The rest of the troups will be coming today for sure to pick my other aunt (who's staying here) up on their way back to Idaho... so we'll probably feed them leftovers. Mom also made me a cheese cake. It was so delicious - depsite the fact that I had her use 'fat free' cream cheese, no one knew except her and I. All my brothers and sisters came over, and 4 nieces, 1 nephew, and one great-niece. Everyone was gone by 7:30 so I was able to enjoy the rest of my evening being a slug. I was a bit more ambitious yesterday than I'd planned on, but it turned out to be a nice day, although I feel really old now. Everyone calls me 'just a baby' but that's just because they're older than I am. My 7 year-old niece asked me how old I was, and her eyes bulged out of her head when I told her. Still a few less than 40 though, that's the bright side of things.

Well, OK... today is my birthday. I was hoping for a relatively low-key dinner and perhaps some cheesecake. Well, it seems to have turned into a circus. My two aunts have travelled from Idaho (not for my birthday, but for other reasons). One aunt is staying here and the other will be staying with her daughter. Mom has invited everyone possible to dinner and dessert. Can I crawl in a hole and hide??? Its not that I'm ungrateful for people wanting to celebrate my birthday with me, I'm just not up for all these people around! I guess the one plus side to this, is no one is coming over until this evening so I have all day today to hide out. My plans include: going back to bed and watching the shows I taped during the week and watching some movies that I rented. Then, I'll watch the Best of Friends Volumes 3 & 4 that E and P gave me for my b-day. Thanks!! :-D I've already watched American Pie 2 (funny as hell) and Rat Race (also funny - but different humor than AP2). I've got two left to watch: Evolution and What's the Worst that Can Happen.

Its Saturday already... don't know where the last couple of days have gone. Happy Groundhog's Day! I hope the little fella doesn't see his shadow, but here in Utah... he will I'm sure. Its sunny (but still damn cold) without a cloud in the sky... so that means no early Spring. Crap.

I’m enjoying the “no electricity available” look at work today. Several people asked if I were feeling well, others look at me funny but probably don't dare ask. Close friends asked me what the hell happened to me. Looking so lovely… but funny that this morning’s events haven’t made me cranky. Shocker.

Well, today is off to a good start. The power went out shortly after midnight and I can’t sleep without a TV on…so didn’t sleep much. 3:30 am came along and still now power so I stayed in bed until 4:00 am, still no power… so I decided to get up and try and salvage my hair and get my behind to work. Didn’t have major bed-head but still having the hair day from hell. Oh well… we all have to look like crap from time to time. Some of us more than others ;-). Hurt my shoulder lifting the garage door and almost dropped it because it wouldn’t stay open. Dad came out just in the nick of time and held it while I moved my car out. The skies were so clear and bright. The light reflected off the snow-covered mountains. It was quite beautiful and I would have stayed to look longer but it was –5 F. BURRRR I wore a big sweater to hide all evidence of just how cold I am!

One song comes to mind this morning: “We’re Having a Heat Wave”. When I left my house this morning, it was a big –1F. By the time I got to work, it had warmed up to about 6F. Pretty soon I’m going to have to start shedding clothing. Wow, what a snow storm yesterday. It hit us hard, snow accumulations anywhere from 8 – 18 inches in the valleys and last count in the mountains was 39 – 45 inches. I do believe that parts of Wyoming and Idaho got more, in fact one place called Newton got 4 feet. In bad weather, why do people seem to always have to drive like they’ve got their heads up their asses? Its slickery and they’ve got to drive 65+ miles an hour. Then if you don’t go as fast as they do (and in the SLOW lane) still feel the need to ride your ass? Here’s some tips: 1. If you rear-end me, its your fault. 2. If you follow me so close and blind me, I’m gonna have to slow down. 3. GO AROUND me. I do like to drive fast – my #1 rule of driving (after safely of course) is to get there without dawdling and go with the flow. But in bad weather conditions I don’t take any chances with my life or anyone else’s who may be on the road. So, quit being so selfish you idiots! My car window is now completely fixed and door is put back together thanks to Chris! He’s a lifesaver!! Guards like me again… not grabbing for their guns as I’m opening my door to show my I.D.

If anyone tells you that replacing a window lift motor in your car is easy - don't believe them. My brother was nice enough to come over and take my old one out and put the new one in... well, he never got the old one out. He tried for over an hour - following the instructions but this motor is rivited in somehow and can't find where. So.... luckily my sister has a friend (who replaced her window lift motor) who is coming over this morning to try mine. I hope he can do it! Had a terrible night last night. My Mom is finally getting tired of my sister K being here all the time on weekends - and knows how much it bothers me so Mom tried to ask her to please just stay one night if she has to and not the entire weekend. I came upstairs right in the middle of it and got a few lashes from K's wicked tongue. That woman knows how to cut someone right to the quick and has done all her life. She knows what tender feelings I have, and that makes it all the more fun I guess. I hate contention, so I usally end up apologizing to her for making her so mad. Well, not this time. I'm sick and tired of her being so rude and getting away with it. I know I've said things to people that I shouldn't and I regret it the second it comes out of my mouth. I always apologize right away (even if they did deserve it). I'm sick of being the emotional punching bag - K has had a rough few months, but it doesn't give her the right to treat me and my family like shit. K even told me that her husband doesn't come over here anymore because of ME. Yeah right. What a cop-out and Mom said the same thing... sorry K... we're not buying that one. She's trying every angle to get everyone in the family to feel sorry for her - even going behind my back and telling people that I've said things to her which I didn't. Grow up. I feel like I'm back in Jr High. We're having a family dinner today for Mom's birthday... should be interesting.

Had a pretty good day. Got up early, did the cleaning thing, took my Mom to lunch (cheese enchiladas!!), then shopped a bit. Came home and puttered around, worked out!!, ate dinner, then took a nice, long, hot shower with the Tranquil Sleep shower gel. I feel like a big glob of jelly right now. I must say that Bath & Bodywork's Tranquil Sleep line is so fantastic. A couple of months ago, they re-did their line of aromatherapy items. I'm still bummed over that. The new "Sleep" isn't quite the same as the Tranquil Sleep stuff... although its still nice. I'm still using up my much valued supply of old stuff... not a drop will be wasted. This shower gel and lotion (along with the linen spray) makes me soooo relaxed and literally takes the stress right out of me. I've finally been able to work out a bit, got the OK from the doc to start out slowly... and today my feet didn't hurt to bad so I walked on the treadmill and then got on my Orbitrek. Went about 30 minutes, which felt great for a first go. I_AM_GONNA_HURT_TOMORROW. Not so much the treadmill, but that Orbitrek had my ass and thighs burning! The hot tub gazebo is almost fixed. We're just waiting for the roofers to come and put the metal on it. Frame is done. Can't WAIT to get in again. Its still so cold out - I keep hearing friends from back East tell me how warm it is. NOT FAIR! Its around 30, which isn't bad... just not as nice as 50 would be! But if it were 50, then the Olympians would have to ski on fake snow and that's just not right. When people come to Utah, they deserve to ski on the real snow.

You know when you’re having a bad day when you put your underwear on wrong. Not inside-out or backwards, but using the waist for a leg and a leg for a waist, which leaves the crotch on the side instead of the middle where it belongs AND then going most of the day like that before you notice. No, didn’t happen to me, but to a friend of mine. She just told me about it and I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. She said after she discovered them on wrong, and decided to leave them that way… didn’t want to ruin the good thing she had going with the label that's usually on the side of the underwear (but now in the crotch)!!!!!!!!!!!! While my friend was telling me about this, another lady did the same thing and that very same week did the inside-out thing. I think there’s something happening to women in the building that is affecting their underwear-putting-on-guidance systems!

You know when you’re having a bad day when you put your underwear on wrong. Not inside-out or backwards, but using the waist for a leg and a leg for a waist, which leaves the crotch on the side instead of the middle where it belongs AND then going most of the day like that before you notice. No, didn’t happen to me, but to a friend of mine. She just told me about it and I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. She said after she discovered them on wrong, and decided to leave them that way… didn’t want to ruin the good thing she had going with the label that's usually on the side of the underwear (but then in the crotch)!!!!!!!!!!!! While my friend was telling me about this, another lady did the same thing and that very same week did the inside-out thing. I think there’s something happening to women in the building that is affecting their underwear-putting-on-guidance systems!

OH HAPPY DAY. A little ray of sunshine just peeked through my otherwise cloudy day… my cube mate (who didn’t come in to work until 12:00) told me he wouldn’t be in to work the rest of the week. Hmmm… yes, I can live with working with him for 4 hours in a week!! Woohoo!

Today is off to a good start. REALLY rough getting out of bed and a really bad hair day. I’ve now just shredded something I shouldn’t have… damn! I feel like I’ve become entirely too “shredder happy” since they bought me my very own. Oh, the power… but sometimes power is a bad thing when put into my hands. I’m thinking this day is gonna be a long one.

The 4-day weekend was extended to 5 days. Stayed home ill today. Feeling much perkier now though. My head doesn't feel like its in a vice and my stomach has quit churning. As my Mom used to ask me, "Why is it you always start to feel better about the same time that school lets out??" I always looked at it as a miracle, Mom always figured I was faking a bit... well, not ALL the time. I shall make it to work tomorrow, although I'm certainly NOT looking forward to all the work piled up for me. Sigh. Spent most of the day watching TV in a sleepy stupor with my loyal cat Ashley by my side. She loves it when I stay home sick so she can curl up with me. Oh, the roof frame for the hot tub gazebo was installed today. We've decided to do a metal roof, so the snow will slide right off. Lesson learned: don't have cedar for the roof of the gazebos, they soak up way too much water from melting snow, then freeze, then fall down. Can't wait to get back in that hot tub and feel those luxurious jets on my feet, back, neck, legs, etc. and maybe even get goosed by one. Now that's a thrill! Woooo! ;-)

Well, here I am at day 4 of the 4-day weekend. Don't really know where the weekend went, but its gone. Went to Park City today for a shopping trip to the outlet malls up there. This town is gearing up for the Olympics. Its cool to see all around Salt Lake all the banners they're putting on the sides of the very tall buildings down town as you drive by on the freeway. I can say its been a pain, all of the preparations (construction, etc.) for the Olympics, but to see the finished product finally makes it worth while. I'm still gonna bitch about the traffic, since there will be events up my way in Ogden. Yikes. Not looking forward to any of that. I leave for work at 4:30 am (see why I don't have a life?!) so that shouldn't be a problem, just coming home at 4:00 pm that is going to be the bugger. I may see if I can leave early during the Olympics, if that will help, who knows. Better yet, work from home! Won't happen... :-(

Day 1 of the 4-day weekend is drawing to a close... got the things done that I needed to, so now I can 'coast' the rest of the weekend. Who knows, I may get ambitious and clean out a closet or two, but don't count on it. Tomorrow night is a big retirement party for a dear friend and co-worker Paul. He and his family have been planning this party for over 6 months, so it should be a great one. Paul is such a great man and will be missed at work, but I'm so happy for him that he will be able to enjoy the rest of his life. Congrats, Paul!

Ahhh... the 4-day weekend has arrived. :-D What SHALL I do?? Well, the cubemate Greg is back from his 1.5 week trip. Damn! I was enjoying life so much while he was away... then he came back and needed me to do all sorts of things. Yeah - its my job to do his expense reports but NOT my job to read his mind and hold his wittle hand. He discovered that today was a deadline to register him for a conference he's speaking at in April. He asked me if I registered him... ummmm..."No, wasn't aware that I needed to. Did you tell me about it?" No.... he didn't! Karen saved the day... like he couldn't take 2 minutes and fill out the silly form, nooooo... he needed me to come to the rescue because he had more "important" things to do. Like I didn't?? The boss needed the some critical financial info and I'm supposed to drop it all to fill out Greg's registration! Sheesh! MEN. OK, done bitching. Gonna enjoy my weekend now :-)

Go to the first blog of the day - for the story from the beginning! 2:30: Busted! After several blasts of the fart machine, Pam discovered it… I heard laughing so I set it off a few more times, then silence… thinking she found the ‘off’ button, I went over to retrieve the machine. When I arrived, she had the back off the machine with batteries spread all over. She was so flustered she couldn’t even see the on/off switch. Janna, Nicole, and I stood laughing hysterically. I asked her why she was killing my fart machine and she said, “This is yours?? You look too sweet and innocent to even be a party with these girls!” Then we really started laughing! I think Julie probably would like to quit, being scared of working with a bunch of loons like us. I mentioned poor Benjamin being blamed for all the fart noises a couple of months ago, and that stared another round of laughter. She had no idea! She was actually going to confront poor, innocent Benjamin about his ‘problem’. As for the ‘smells’ that were wafting from his ‘so called problem’, she still swears they were real smells and he was probably taking advantage of the noises already provided and letting some slip by… being a man and all ;-) We all had tears rolling down our faces and my side still hurts from laughing so hard. Several people had to come by to see what we were laughing about, which caused more laughing as we explained. But, like all good things, it had to come to an end… I took my fart machine and went back to my cube. Pam is such a great sport! Now we’ll have to await a new victim…

12:00 Fart machine in place. 12:50 Found the perfect opportunity to set it off. I hear Pam and Julie chatting and laughing. I hit the remote… the laughter stops… silence for what seems an enternity… then conversation proceeds. Could you just imagine what both of these ladies are thinking?! Both thinking the other one let one loose?? I’m over here snickering trying not to bust up. How old am I, you ask?? Hmmm… never too old to play a prank!

Seems that my poor co-worker Pam is once more the victim of a joke. Her mouse was stolen, or rather it ran away. She’s the same victim that we (cohorts Nicole and Janna) got a couple of months ago with the fart machine. She had NO clue there was a fart machine, but blamed it on her soon-departing co-worker Benjamin. She was so convinced it was him, she even thought she ‘smelled’ the farts. That was the funniest part. It went on for over a week! So, the time has come again to place the fart machine in good hiding place, Pam’s gym bag. They’ve hired a replacement for Benjamin, her name is Julie. So, we’ll get Pam and break Julie as well. Aren’t we nice?!! Yeah, yeah… makes life fun. :-) I shall plant the machine as soon as they leave for lunch… details to follow…

One of my pet peeves is drivers who go slow on the freeway – and when you go to pass them, decide to speed up for one of the following reasons: 1. They wanna race you. 2. Discover that they’re going slow and need to speed up. 3. Feel the need to keep up with the other car – like it’s a competition. 4. They just like to irritate me. Once you manage to pass them, then they slow down again! Consistency people!! The air here has been stagnant and full of pollutants. Quite unpleasant. I thought I was coming down with a cold, but turns out its just reaction to the nasty stuff in the air. But, there’s finally a bit of a wind to blow this shit out of the area. Blew right up my dress this morning, which is a slight thrill but at 20 degrees, its COLD! I’d rather have it on a hot summer’s day than in the middle of the winter, but hey, you take the thrills when you can get them. Tee hee Another good thing today is my window in my car (power) worked today! Its on the fritz and needs a new motor. It didn’t work all last week, so I was pleasantly surprised when it worked this morning. What a great thing as I was coming through the Air Force gate and didn’t have to open my door to give them my I.D. No guard had to put his hand on his machine gun and be on alert for me opening me door. Nice, safe feeling not to have someone want to shoot me. I’m working on getting the new motor for my window, and someone nice enough to install it for me, or maybe I can figure out how to do it if I can get the door panel off and back on properly.

Men seem to really like to blame one thing for everything else that is going wrong in their lives... and I suppose its really human nature. Sigh. I also know that men are conditioned to not deal with their feelings which is really an injustice to them. They're taught to be tough and not let things get to them and that's sad. It takes such an incredibly strong person to face their feelings and deal with them, male or female. Takes a lot of courage. So, I guess I don't hate men after all - just very frustrating creatures... just like us women are for them.

MEN. The most complicated creatures on this planet. Definitely from Mars.

Hmmm... Ya know what? I just noticed I'm still not listed on the Z-Listers Blogsite! I've requested it a couple of times... maybe my blog sucks to much to even be on the Z-Listers?? LOL! I'm not surprised at that ;-) Oh well, great therapy and I like that cool button.

Discovered (through the help of my buddy Colin) a good blog called Retailbytes. Stories that will crack you up! The link is now on my list :-) Enjoy!

Friday... had a pretty good Friday... got up early, got all my cleaning done then went off to play with buddy Linda for the day. We used to play on Fridays all the time, but haven't done it regularly in about a year. We met at the diner where my sister works and had a fab omelet then we went to the mall to shop a bit before our movie started. We're quite the shoppers - get in, find what we need and we're done. :-) The movie we saw was Harry Potter. I haven't read any of the books, so I wasn't totally sure what it was all about (except that wizardry was involved). I must say I really enjoyed the movie. It had humor and adventure. I suggest seeing it. The movie was enjoyable despite the child behind us that kept talking and smaking her lips while eating candy. Reminded me of an toothless dirty old man smaking his lips when a georgeous 20 year old walks by. Then the mother was constantly rattling a bag. Gets kinda irritating. Yeah, I know... we asked for it going to a 'family' type show. I like kids, don't get me wrong... I just have the opinion that children under the age of 3 shouldn't go to movies exept maybe cartoons. They can't understand the storyline and end up being a bother to everyone around. Movies generally can't keep a child of that age entertained for any more than 10 minutes. OK, enough bitching about that. There were other children in the theatre that were quite well behaved - those are the kind of kids I don't mind having around. I came home, unloaded my car from all my errands then took a nice long hot shower. I feel like I've been reborn but my feet may not forgive me for a few days. What is it with malls and tile floors that KILL your feet? You'd think they'd want to make it easier on the feet so people would stay longer and buy more things!

Yesterday driving home was total grid-lock for about 8 miles. All 3 lanes of traffic were almost stopped completely for about 25 minutes. I was excited when I got out of first gear. I was listening to the traffic report on the radio and the incident was actually reported - Ogden very rarely gets reported, usually only Salt Lake. Turns out there was an accident, very minor though. Some f*ckwit rear-ended a Highway Patrolman. Quite funny when you think about it - how big of an idiot do you have to be to rear-end someone on the freeway, let alone a Highway Patrolman. The person who reported the accident to the radio said the policeman was NOT smiling. I'd hate to be the poor sucker who ran into him.

I just got an e-mail from my childhood friend Carol thanking me for a gift I'd left for her at her parent's house. She had a funny story to share with me. When I dropped off the present, no one was home, so I left it on their door step. In the bag (besides the Xmas present) was a stuffed hedgehog, (because she likes hedgehogs). I didn't wrap it so it was just laying there in the sack. Her dad picked up the sack and looked to see what it was and immediately dropped it - he thought it was a dead rat! Scared him to death!! I could see Howard jump and let out a little scream! Sorry Howard... not so much for the hedgehog but for laughing ;-).

I've emerged from the fog... driving to work this morning was terrible. The fog was the thickest that I've ever encountered. I couldn't see much except about 6 lines on the road in front of me or the occasional tail lights in the distance or the head lights behind me. When I couldn't see any lights, it felt like I was the only thing on this earth surrounded by whiteness in the dark. But - I made it here safe and sound... having a bad hair day again thanks to the fog!!

I have some stubborn cupboards here at work that won't roll back to open all the way. I was walking down the hall when I spied my friend Renate carrying a can of WD-40. Linda came along and heard me ask Renate if I could borrow the can... Linda asked me if I needed some 'lubrication' loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear - and my mind went right in to the gutter (and why not - it lives there the majority of the time)... and started to blush. Then of course them and everyone in the hall had to ask why I was blushing carrying the can of WD-40... I just giggled and walked away. I knew I'd get into trouble if I said one word... wouldn't they like to know if I needed some lubrication...

Got this in my e-mail this morning. It was attached to one of those irritating "Pass along to # friends and you'll have good luck forever, but don't pass it along trouble will come your way" e-mails. I hate those things and usually delete them right away, refusing to forward them on. I read these before I got down to the chain letter part and thought they were worth sharing - no clue where they came from originally. Read Each One Carefully and Think About It a Second or Two 1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you. 2. No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won't make you cry. 3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. 4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart. 5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them. 6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile. 7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. 8. Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you. 9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful. 10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened. 11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time around. 12. Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you. 13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

The Bad Hair Day. How does it start? I styled my hair normally this morning, everything went the way it should, look pretty good heading out the door... then an hour later pass by a mirror at work and my hair has gone to hell. No rain, snow, wind or other hair destructive weather situations. Truly a mystery...

Thanks to the tip from The OtherCheek, I now have comments! Thanks :-) It was so easy so if anyone wants to add comments to their blog, go to YACCS. Truly a lifesaver for the HTML challenged like myself. Ignore the entry just below... something got goofed up! Won't let me edit it to get rid of it. Don't know what I did!

Thanks to the tip of The OtherCheek, I now have comments! Thanks :-) It was so easy so if anyone wants to add comments to their blog, go to

Saturday, January 5

I was sent this list by e-mail (thanks Uncle Shorty!). #23 didn't surprise me one bit.. although I thought it would be a higher percentage. Little Known Facts 1. Barbie's full name is Barbara Milicent Roberts. 2. It is impossible to lick your elbow. 3. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out. 4. A shrimp's heart is in their head. 5. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a mili-second. 6. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand (or attempted to do so). 7. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. 8. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. 9. Between 1937 and 1945 Heinz produced a version of Alphabetti Spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of little pasta swastikas. 10. By law, every child in Belgium must take harmonica lessons at Primary school. 11. On average, a human being will have sex more than 3,000 times and spend two weeks kissing in their lifetime. 12. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call. 13. Rats and horses can't vomit. 14. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. 15. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. 16. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. 17. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. 18. If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles? 19. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. 20. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. 21. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 22. A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere, and no one knows why. 23. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their buttocks. 24. In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders. 25. Most lipstick contains fish scales. 26. Cat's urine glows under a black light. 27. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different. 28. If you keep your eyes open by force, they will pop out.

Take the What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be? Quiz
Thanks Fluffy Muppet and The OtherCheek for the link. I'm beginning that everyone needs to stop being stupid this year... it definitely works for me!

So glad E and P are back from their holiday! Welcome back!!!

Cool link - courtesy of Fluffy Muppet to see what your Hobbit name is. Mine is Esmerelda Bumblefoot of Haysend.

Had a nice day today. I worked this morning to make up time from earlier in the week, then went out with my friend Linda to a movie and lunch. Happy Birthday Linda!! :-) We went to see Royal Tenenbaum. We heard that it was supposed to be hilarious...wrong. It had some pretty dark humor and some pretty sad parts. These people are royally screwed up - maybe that's what was so funny?? It was mildly amusing in some parts and all the actors did a great job. It wasn't boring at all, kept us interested. I doubt I'll rent it when it comes out on video. Linda and I had a great time despite the not-so-funny movie... I got me a big pickle to eat during the movie. Yum... and its fun to eat and be a bit naughty with the pickle to see how many people I can shock. Unfortunately, the previews had already started by the time we sat down and the theatre was too dark for people to see what I was doing... licking the juices, sucking on the pickle (to prevent more drips) etc. Oh well, I enjoyed the pickle immensly. tee hee Linda was going to get a pickle too, but she opted for Sprees... but I think she wished she'd got a pickle.

Pet Peeve of the week: People who don't clean the snow off their cars. Yes, its a pain and its cold BUT it makes it possible for SEEING out your windows when you drive. I almost got ran over the other day because some ditz decided to change lanes going 75 miles an hour (me along with her) down the freeway and couldn't see me because of the snow on her back window. I was in the middle lane and thank God there wasn't anyone in the outside lane. I ALWAYS clean off the snow that is not stuck to my car - including the roof because it tends to slip off the back and obstructs my rear view.

New Year's Eve was a nice evening, I went out to dinner then came home and played a rousing game of Dominos... then fell asleep before midnight. Am I pathetic or what?! (I thought of lots of fun things I wanted to do, but J is too far away!!!) I did wake up right at midnight though, to the sounds of my neighbors setting off fireworks. Well into the night, there was another commotion that woke me up from a dead sleep... the gazeebo over the hot tub decided to cave in from all the snow! Such a site to see. The walls are all still standing, the the roof caved in from the skylight and it looks like it crushed the hot tub cover where it landed on all 4 corners. Hopefully it didn't crack the hot tub though, we can't move anything until the claims adjuster gets here tomorrow. There wasn't even that much snow on the roof - most of it slid off and melted. Maybe the wood weakened from all the moisture... who knows.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Ahhhh... holidays are now officially over, well that is after today is over. Time to get back to normal life as we know it. Tomorrow is my sister Susie's 40th birthday! The family is celebrating it tonight. I've spent the greater part of this afternoon making over-the-hill type banners and signs. I made a big poster board with cute and embarrassing pictures of her youth with the saying "Lordy, Lordy Look Who's 40!" Really original I know, but funny. I scanned in the pics then printed them out (just LOVE my new scanner and printer!) on photo paper so I wouldn't ruin the originals. She's probably gonna kill me... oh well. It would probably be a good idea for my 40th birthday if I lived far, far away... paybacks are a bitch... ;-) Tomorrow night Susie will go out to dinner and clubbing with her friends to celebrate the occasion properly. I'll go along for a while - should be fun. Oooo... me going out on a weeknight... oh wait a minute... me going out at all! Here's to New Year's Resolutioon #1. Meanwhile, back to work tomorrow! I'll get to leave early to go to the doctor for him to check on my RA... and surely he'll be drawing the usual 8 viles of blood... which is OK, I suppose since he's very thorough. Time to use the new insurance too, they're gonna love me I think!

Uh oh... time to start thinking about those New Year's Resolutions again... so here we go: 1. Continue to try and get a life. 2. Take more chances and break out of the safe little world in which I exist. 3. Go to England! Woohoo! OK, so this is something I've planned for a long time, and finally the year is here! 4. Get those irritating, sick people searching for p**ped panties away from my Blog. The idea is beyond me. The sniffing panties (even though I don't personally practice it) seems to be much more normal. 5. Don't be so hard on myself... believe me, easier said than done. I'm my own worst enemy. 6. Be more charitable all year around, not just the Holiday Season. 7. Blog about more interesting things... which kinda goes hand in hand with getting that life. 8. ....??

Best quote about Christmas that I heard all week came from my friend Nancy..."Christmas is like sex with my X... lots of hoopla and build-up then its done before you know it."

Christmas Eve family party was nice. We had 18 bodies ranging from ages 7 to 67 plus 2 babies. Lots of food, even though we toned things down. We ate... then played a fun pass present around game, opened and traded the funny gifts... some held onto their presents as if their life depended on keeping it... the Pepsi and Mountain Dew trucks were the highly coveted items. I ended up with a dream catcher making kit...oooo... can't wait to dig in and make one. ;-) I think I may let my 7 year old niece have it when she's over next. Christmas day was pretty good too. Mom and Dad spoiled me (and everyone!) more than they should have. After opening our gifts, we made the trip out to each of my brother's houses to see their kids. Then home to a nice, quiet house. I put things away and crashed from exhuastion. I worked Wednesday and Thursday... days that I hoped I could play catch up, but it sure didn't turn out that way. I kept really busy and didn't even get bored!! I think Monday will be just as crazy. My boss is really frustrated with our corporate contacts people not doing their jobs in a timely manner so our contract with the gov't isn't in place as of yet! It was supposed to have been done by Dec 21 but it didn't even get started until yesterday. Thanks Judy! Appreciate your timeliness in this matter... sure would like to come into work on Jan 2. I could always go sit in our local office, twiddle my thumbs and charge my time to overhead. Too bad I can't charge the contracts people directly... I cleaned and put all my Christmas decor away this morning :-) Nice to have it around, but nice to have things back to normal. Mom has been working for 2 days putting things away from upstairs. This afternoon I took a short nap and was awaken by the sound of her falling down the last 2 stairs!! She's all right, thank goodness!! I'm sure she's going to be mighty sore tomorrow.

Its been such a lovely day today! Nice, quiet, and soooo relaxing. I even took a 2 hour nap! :-) Love those Sunday afternoon naps. I was just flipping through the digital cable channels and came across the old show "Rudolph's Shiny New Year"! I got all excited... some childhood memory flashes hit me! Right after this show is "Rudolph and Frosty"!! I'm set for the night's entertainment. Hey, you do what you gotta do sometimes. Watching these types of shows seems to bring back the magic of Christmases past. One of my favorite movies to watch this time of year (or anytime of the year really..) is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. What a riot. Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh... the baking is DONE! All cornpops are divided out into care packages for all my siblings and their families as well as the spicy chex mix. :-) Salsa turned out is a little tamer than I normally make, but has fantastic flavor that I didn't want to mess with. Now comes Monday... the Christmas Eve meal preparations. Mom has declared that we are doing it simple this year. Thank goodness! Its about time... every year that I can remember we've had the entire kitchen counter and a long table filled with food - for around 18 people. We always have a ton of leftovers and it takes longer to divy up the leftovers than it does to clean up the dishes. About 5 years ago, I had Mom sign a document saying that next year she wouldn't over do it.. impossible to hold her to it. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we had the same amount of food as the year before. This year we REALLY are cutting back. We're having honey baked spiral ham (YUMMMY!), homemade rolls, soup (two kinds, Tortilla and cream of potato), frogeye salad, little smokies (simmered in cranberry sauce - sounds strange but is soooo delicous), potato chips and dip, tortilla chips and salsa, pickles and olives. I know she'll stick to it this year because she's bought all the groceries and won't be going out for more. Mom was really my favorite person yesterday... she me made peanut butter fudge... peanut butter is one of my weaknesses and I don't eat any chocolate (except for the white chocolate)! I got to lick the warm fudge from the spatula after she was done spreading it in the pan... pure heaven! I'd like to have the whole pan for myself, but I'll share with the family, 'tis the season after all!

Ewww... tomorrow comes the baking! I'm making 9 more batches of cornpops, probably 4 batches of spicy chex mix, and some homemade kick-ass salsa. Hoping I can get it all done in one day!

The blog has really suffered this week. Not one entry! Sunday was a shitty day beyond shitty days, so we won't discuss it because it involves the sister Kathy. Monday was better, but so crazy at work. Seemed like I looked at the clock at it was time for lunch, looked up again and it was time to go home! I love it when the time speeds by like that... Tuesday was much the same. We did have our office Christmas party on Tuesday, and it was a lot of fun. We all brought white elephant gifts... I donated some golfer's toilet paper. We all drew numbers and who ever had #1 started by opening one gift. The person that had #2 could pick a present already open or get another gift... and so on. If someone took your present, then you got to open a new one. I had #36 of 37 so... I pretty much had the pick of the game. I had my eye on a singing reindeer until a pair of massage balls were discovered... I seem to be attracted to pairs of balls of any kind... just special that way. So, I got the balls! #37 got the reindeer and seemed pleased with himself. There was a guy who got a tube of hemmaroid cream... he was so pleased... it was so ironic because this guy is the biggest pain in the ass in the entire office! A few of us got quite a kick out of that! Couldn't bring myself to blog when I got home... didn't even look at the computer! Wednesday was just as crazy at work... came home and was all ready to blog then the power went out! The power was out from Brigham City to Layton... which is about 40-45 miles. Seems that two power stations blew. Took 2 hours to get power back, but soooo nice to have it back. Really makes you appreciate power when you do have it. Mom was right in the middle of wrapping presents when it went out, but the trooper lit a hurricane lamp and went right on wrapping. That's dedication for ya! We had a quarterly meeting with the management yesterday morning and the rest of the day was crazy as hell. Last night, total and complete exhaustion hit, I layed on my bed and didn't move. Got up this morning and cleaned... then went into town and met my good friend Robin for lunch. The last of my Christmas lunches!! I think I've had 8 in the past 2 weeks. Quite a few for someone who doesn't go out to eat much... but it was nice catching up with friends and trading presents. I've got a group of really terrific friends, very fortunate :-) Then after lunch, went grocery shopping and then snuck into the local Hastings (video, CD's, book store) and found a nice little stocking stuffer... the compilation of Pink Floyd, best songs, should be sooo good! I also found some cheap videos, movies I already have taped, but tapes are getting a bit worn.

Something just occured to me... yes, you'd better sit down... I wonder if SOME of my bitching about Kathy is a way to vent my frustrations about my life... hmmmm... could be! Rheumatoid Arthritis isn't easy to deal with and I do need some sort of an outlet for how frustrating day to day life can be. OK, I am willing to admit SOME of it is just my own frustration. Having her here so much does interfere with my rest and relaxation but it doesn't really give me the right to bitch about it all the time. My apologies to my readers. I'll do my best to quit bitching so much... I do have other things in my life to talk about. I must say that this blogging thing is great therapy!

Oh crap... I just hate it when I go to post my Blog and I get an error! GRRRRR!!! I spent the majority of the day baking my goodies for work. I made about 25 dozen cookies (5 different kinds)and 9 batches of my famous Cornpop treats... well, OK its not MY recipe... got it off the package of Corn Pop snacks (not the cereal). They are small morsels of heaven... and have the ability to make one's problems seem to disappear. Easy to make, which makes a lot of my problems disappear. If you want the recipe, just e-mail me! I'm exhausted but happy to have all of this done. I'll have another 9 batches of Cornpops to make and then about 4 batches of Chex Mix, hot and spicy to make next weekend. Kathy has already started to beg for the Chex Mix... maybe I'll tell her I'll make her some if she'd GO HOME. She was gone the majority of the week... while I was at work naturally, but is back again. She stayed the night last night because her husband was having a friend over... now why she can't be home while he has 'friends' over non of us can figure out... but she is still here as of 2:43pm. I'm praying very hard that she'll go home very, very, very soon. But really why should she? She's got Mom and Dad to tend her child and a bed that she can sleep on and not have to get her ass out of it for anything other than going to the bathroom? GRRR! On the brighter side of things, Christmas is fastly approaching and I've got all the prezzies bought, wrapped and delivered :-) One of the biggest things I enjoy about Christmas is seeing someone's joy from a gift that I gave them. My Mom keeps asking me what I want... I started to say "Obsession shower gel and lotion" and she beat me to it by saying "don't tell me Obsession shower gel and lotion." Sheesh! I don't know what else I'd want her to get me... she doesn't do well with picking clothes out for me and she'll be hurt if I say 'give me money' because she likes shopping for gifts. Quite the quandry.

Activities for the weekend: Baking, baking and more baking. Going to make cookies and some of my special buttery cornpop treats for people at work for Monday! The family stuff is going to have to wait until next week. Exciting life, I know...

Been a long week... been either too exhausted or too busy to blog! Tuesday my TV went out, so I ventured to Wal-Mart for a new one (Merry Christmas to ME!)... had Xmas lunches everyday this week except for Monday, so I'm feeling quite popular... the festivities will continue on into next week. One really good thing this week, is Kathy has been living at her very own apartment... imagine that... Life is good... until she comes back... don't mind visits, just not extended visits. :-) Its snowing yet again!

Well, the bitch is back... actually she never really left... that's right, Kathy is back. Some lame excuses for having to stay the night... which includes the mornings because she can't drag her ass out of bed until 1pm. So tired of her being here and her crap! UGH!!

Well, the shopping is done! I made my list and went to town. I like to get things done early so I can enjoy the holidays, but for some reason this year I've been quite the nervous nelly about getting it done NOW. The only thing left is to get my nieces and nephews the usual gift cards, but I need to wait for my sister Susie to go in halfsies on those... or hey, we may decide to just to cash. Cash is good. Now comes the wrapping of the gifts, most will go in gift bags. Closer to Christmas will come the baking. UGH

Oh, what a scream! Mom came downstairs to put her laundry in the dryer... I was waiting inside my bathroom listening for a scream... all of the sudden, I heard a sort of a gasp/screech as Mom put her hand in the box of Bounce. She felt the spider (gasp) and then she saw it (screech). *snicker* then she called me by my full name! LOL! I love it. I'm still in posession of the little critter because I grabbed it after she set it on the dryer. I'll have to plot my next hiding place for the critter.

The spider war continues. Just after Halloween, Mom put a fake black spider under a pillow on my bed. It did look real, I didn't scream but I did jump. I never said anything to her... I just took the spider and placed it in some fabric pieces that Mom would be sewing soon. I waited all month of November for the pile of pieces to move... she finally got a chance to do some sewing this week. Funny, she never said a thing to me about the spider... then I found it this morning under a towel in the laundry room. The war continues.... I placed the spider in the box of Bounce fabric softener sheets. tee hee In the summer months, we plant rubber snakes around the yard.

Notice the new button on the right. I'm now an official Zee Lister! Much better than an A or B Lister, was never into that anyway. I'm too much of a goof. My sister Susie went to get her hair done yesterday by my old school chum Kass. Kass gave Susie an envelope for me, which contained some thing we'd written in the 9th grade. I opened it and read it, it was a letter/poem to our 9th grade History teacher Mr. Morris. Oh my God! I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard!! Mr. Morris was a strange creature indeed. We constantly made jokes about him - a matter of survival. It was either that or never go to class and flunk. Kass was one true friend in my school days - she brought me out of my shy shell and made me like life. We were always up to something, giggling about this or that... drooling over a guy or plotting how to get a guy to notice us. I could tell her anything and she never judged me. I should really get together with her and talk about old times. Last night was Girl's Night (my group of close friends) Christmas party. We had a great time, lots of laughs but we couldn't stay long as the weather was turning bad and we needed to head home. We were also starving because the club kitchen was closed due to remodelling. How rude. Last night was just one great night. I got home, and all evidence of my sister Kathy was GONE. She moved into her new apartment. WOOOHOOO!!! She's up to something though - she called me (on the phone when she was right upstairs!! LOL!!) the other day and told me that the reason she was staying here in the house instead of the motel with her husband, was because Dad loves baby Elyssa so much. She wouldn't want to deprive him of time with her. I about choked to keep from laughing. Then she proceeded to tell me that she was so worried about Mom because she was looking so tired lately... hmmmm.. would that be because Kathy is a lazy ass and Mom has to clean up after her and tend her baby so much??!! Duh! I got the feeling she was making excuses for her behavior... like she was trying to clear her conscience?... why on earth did she tell me these excuses if she didn't have a guilty conscience? Me thinks she's up to something for sure.

Note to self (and others who read this): Don't spill your Spaghetti-Os on your keyboard. That's what I get for being pressed for time and being hungry... actually desperate to be eating Spaghetti-Os in the first place. ;-)

The Saturday Wal-mart Experience! I kept asking myself, "who's idea was this to come to Wal-Mart on a Saturday before Christmas?" and I had to keep answering "your's you silly goose!" I was feeling ambitious today and wanted to get some more shopping done. I asked Mom and Dad if they wanted to go to Wal-Mart with me and both of them said yes. Now I knew Mom would, but Dad?? Come to find out, he could either go shopping with Mom and I OR stay home and babysit baby Elyssa. Dad LOVES Elyssa but Kathy and her husband Ellis were trying to pawn her off on someone while they went out for the day. Dad decided it was high time that Kathy and Ellis took responsibility for their child and they could just take Elyssa with them OR wait until he got back from Wal-Mart. They chose to take Elyssa with them. Dad made a comment in the car that "we have a life too and they need to respect that". Miracles never cease. :-) Its good to know that Mom and Dad are FINALLY realizing that Kathy takes advantage of the Grandparent Babysitting Services. Dad really hates shopping, so that shows how much he's getting fed up with the whole Kathy & Ellis situation. Anyway, back to the Wal-Mart shopping experience. We got a pretty good parking place - not in the north forty. But I can tell you that people are so rude! Mom and I were standing waiting for the Welcome Lady to get a shopping cart for us, and 3 people butted right in front of us. Finally I went around one lady and grabbed one myself. What happened to waiting your turn and being polite?? Guess its to be expected around Christmas, being the season and all. People forget what its all about. I'm sure I got cut off at least 20 times trying to get through isles while trying to find things. I'm surprised I didn't come out with bumps and bruises from all the people bumping in to me... next time I may decide to wear protective gear. Not that I was being slow or obnoxious, just trying to shop. Some people use their carts as weapons! 1 hour later, Dad said he'd had enough and was going to sit in the car. It took Mom and I about 30 minutes later to finish what we needed to do, then get through the check out counter. Lesson Learned: Never go to Wal-Mart on a Saturday during the month of December. Although I am happy to have the majority of my shopping DONE, I'll never do that again!

Had a pretty good day yesterday. Got my cleaning done, then took my Mom to lunch then shopping. Mom is becoming my cheese enchilada buddy :-). Dad never eats in a Mexican restaurant (he only likes home-made tacos!) so Mom is happy to go with me, especially if its my treat. I'll never catch up to all the meals she's treated me to though. Shopping was nice, not too crowded and we got the things we intended to - my trunk and the backseat of my car was full. We got home, and here comes my sister Kathy and she just watches Mom and I unload everything... then after my 6th trip downstairs she finally asks, "Oh, did you need some help carrying that stuff downstairs?" Duh! But wouldn't want her to break her streak of not lifting any fingers to help... although I still fight not to lift a finger in her direction. I suppose I shouldn't complain because she and her husband moved out of their apartment Wednesday and Thursday and I couldn't help (one of the good things about having RA is I can't lift much). Kathy and the baby are staying here until Dec 6 (when their new apartment is ready) but her husband is staying in a flea bag motel. Fine with me. Yesterday he called and asked to borrow Mom and Dad's portable heater and an extra blanket because he was freezing. Everyone got quite a chuckle over that. After shopping and unloading the car, I settled in for a nice quiet night. I watched 5 episodes of my soap opera "Days of Our Lives" in 2.5 hours. I forwarded through the story lines that I'm not really into - like all the teen romances. I'm getting sick of the teeny boppers taking over the majority of the show these days while the grown ups are in the background. I want to see more of John and Bo... oh and let's not forget the new Brady cousin Colin who is very nice. There's a big story on the horizon... I wish they'd just get to it and let the teenagers grow up!