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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

2/23/10

Sheesh. February is almost over. Time really does fly when you get older. It’s going to be spring soon. I admit I dug thru the mulch on the south side of the house to see if any sprouts were coming up yet. I should have been looking in the yard for crocuses – but it just got covered with about 9 inches of snow yesterday. Guess I won’t be seeing anything soon.


Linda, Angel, Lisa & Catie at the restaurant in Dryden

Laurie, Mom & me

So we had “Girls’ Night Out” Saturday night. We always make it sound so much wilder than it really is. I got to Laurie’s about 1ish. She had taken Angel & Lisa to a 4H meeting, so I sat & visited with Mom. They came in, we got engrossed in watching a Stephen King movie (I so need to get that book Rose Red from the library!!) then Linda & Catie came in, so we got spiffied up and went to dinner at the Podunk bar/restaurant in Dryden. Mom & Laurie thought it would be fun to stay to hear the band. However, they didn’t find out what kind of music the band played – good info to know!!! It ended up being 4 old geezers playing rock & blues – but they played their own songs, so we didn’t stay long after they started. It was about 10 when we got back to Laurie’s. Of course there were several Chinese Fire Drills on the way – I even switched cars during one. And a brief search for my phone that Angel had dropped during the first stop. Then Angel wanted to do makeovers on everyone. Scary. Words can’t describe. But the general consensus between me, Laurie & Linda was we were glad we went first. It was “makeup” then instead of ‘artwork” that it became.

Mimi, Valley Girl & Zombie

Yeah.  Nice.

Angel had all last week off school. Monday & Tuesday she was at the Boys & Girls Club, Wednesday Randy stayed home with her. The plan at first was for her to hang out with Grandma Thursday and I stay home Friday. However, Mom picked her up Wednesday evening & kept her. I didn’t see her again until I got to Laurie’s Saturday. I still stayed home Friday – it was very nice.  Randy & Angel were both sad Wednesday - we donated the truck to the Volunteers of America and they came to get it.  Randy was sad because it was a fun truck to drive, just not reliable.  Angel was sad because we told her it was going to be her first car.   But now she's happy again because she thinks she'll get my Escort!


Goodbye!

So I skipped weigh in Thursday night & went Friday morning. Went grocery shopping & couldn’t resist stopping at Bordine’s nursery for the Buy One Get One Half Off Plant Sale. Got a bit happy with the plants & ended up taking one to work, since I finally admitted that there just isn’t room for any more plants in this house. Sigh. But I took everything home, grabbed the dog & went to the car wash (which he didn’t like much) and then to get his nails trimmed. The rest of the day I did random stuff here & there, cleared off the bookshelf in our bedroom & dusted it – bagged up 3 plastic sacks of magazines to recycle. Randy wasn’t too happy about that, but I did keep the last 6 month’s worth of QST for him.

The Friday before Valentine’s I took Angel and her partner-in-crime Amanda to the mall. I synchronized cell phone clocks with them and sent them on their way. I ended up getting Randy a DVD box set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with a Tom Servo toy for V-Day. He loved it! We also had to go to Target because Amanda had gift cards. Wooo! It was an exciting night.

So Saturday the 13th, Randy & Angel went out shopping for me (I guilted him into going). While they were gone, I was working on killing dust bunnies from under the bed. I didn’t realize it was going to be a 5 hour job! I stripped sheets, dusted the ceiling fan, pulled everything out from under the bed, moved the bed, vacuumed all the cat hair & pillow feathers, dusted bedside tables, cleaned out drawers, it was a mess. Trying to put the bed back was a chore. We have the head elevated, so the top legs are on 2x6s and the middle legs on 1x6s. It’s a bitch to do alone. I fought & fought & cussed & fought – then the idea light bulb came on. I got the jack out of my car….cranked one side up, positioned the boards neatly, and cranked it back down. No effort at all. I was so proud of myself for coming up with that!

On Valentine’s Day, I got up and exercised, with the thought of coloring my hair before church – forgot about the ‘stuff’. Randy got me a stuffed devil that sings Hot Blooded while his pitchfork spins around – it also lights up & spells stuff out while it spins. Very cool! Angel got 2 different stuffed monkeys & candy. It was nice not having to fill out valentines for her class this year! I’m liking junior high more & more!

So anyway, that’s all the excitement here. We went last Thursday night to pick up my prescription from the store. My ob/gyn put me on prenatal vitamins last spring, after I told her we weren’t “preventing” pregnancy. Hello? I haven’t been on the Pill for over 2 years now. Nothing yet. I wonder which one of us is the issue. After my uterine polyp & crap last February, it’s probably me. I have age working against me, too. I may as well go back on the Pill so my cycle is back to a normal 28 days & just adopt a puppy. Pppft.

Jack messing up Catie's bed after she got him running around like crazy.

I guess sometime soon we’re going to have a painting party at Mom’s house. She wants the living room painted before she gets new carpet & furniture. That nasty poo brown carpet has been in there as long as I can remember and she’s still got one of those groovy floor model console TVs. It works fine, so I can see why it’s still around.

We got a big bunch of snow Sunday night / Monday. Most schools were closed, but not our district. The kids had to go in, but were sent home early. So I ended up with 2 extra kids yesterday til about 8 pm. Amanda & Jazzy were “hanging out” with Angel. I had to take them to the park so they could go sledding (after they retrieved our snow shovels & a large handful of my kitchen utensils from Jazzy’s yard). None of them were dressed for sledding, no hats & just jeans, etc. So I took them to 7-11 for hot chocolate on the way home. They had fun, so I guess it was worth it. Angel came home early today because her tummy hurt, she thought the sub she had at lunch was bad. Yay – half day of work for me!

This is a 2" chunk of frozen snow we chipped up off the driveway & spray painted.
Alrighty, Randy is on his way home now, so I should start considering dinner.  Later!

My sweet boys!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

2/6/10

Happy “Super” Saturday!
Who am I kidding? I don’t give a crap about football. Randy will watch the Razorbacks once in a while, but he’s not fanatical about it. But I will watch the Super Bowl for the game and not just the commercials this year. For the first time I got in the office football pool. For me holding the $$ in my desk that locks, Rich bought me a square. My numbers suck, but oh well. I’m not sure who I want to root for, hell I don’t even know who Randy’s rooting for. Angel wants to Colts to win because (in typical 12 year-old-girl fashion) they wear pretty blue and their mascot is a horse.

Not a whole lot is going on. Randy just left with his buddy Dave for Grand Rapids to spend the weekend with Bob. Bob was the best man in our wedding, one of Randy’s best friends and Dave’s brother-in-law. They’re going to a Griffins game tonight – they’re the Red Wings’ minor league team. Randy was really torn about going, since this weekend is the Minnesota QSO party – he’s gotten first place from Michigan contesters for the past 2 years. I’m glad he chose to hang out with the guys instead. I don’t think Bob or Dave is into radio stuff, either.

I went and had a physical done yesterday. The last time I had one was almost 2 years ago – it was a contributing factor to me joining Weight Watchers. Besides seeing the # on the scale, I had borderline high cholesterol, etc. So moron me took a 1 PM appointment and I needed to fast for 12 hours before. Work killed me! Besides the Friday morning bagels, Ross bought the company pre-Super Bowl pizza & salad for lunch. At least it arrived shortly before I left. None of the dispatchers had wandered down to get any yet. Ya know, I wasn’t really starving, since I was able to tank up on water. And I did! When they asked for a urine sample it was almost clear – LOL! So I can’t wait to see how the blood tests come out. I’d like to compare my “before” results with these. I got a tetanus shot, too. My shoulder is still hurting! I sure won’t be doing my bellydance DVD today – since there’s a lot of arm work involved.

We went Monday night and dropped off 2 big clothes baskets of towels to the Humane Society and we managed to leave without any new additions to the family!! Only because the volunteers had left for the day already. Shucks. I really want to get another dog. I saw at one of the shelters in Detroit is a 5 year old, 42 pound male Beagle named Jake. Would go perfectly with our 5 year old, 42 pound male Beagle named Jack! But unless we either get our yard fenced (not likely – considering how Randy is about home improvements) or we move to a place with a fenced yard (not likely - considering the economy), we have to make do with just one puppy. Sigh.

Thursday morning, Angel came out of the bathroom & told me that she wanted to get her haircut ~faint~ and if she hadn't had dance that night, she would have been at the salon right after school.  So we waited til Friday after school.  I was trying to talk her into donating it again, but she only ended up with about 5 inches cut off.  She doesn't look like cousin Itt any more!

Before

After

I got Randy hooked on Facebook. One of my biggest pet peeves is someone standing behind me while I’m on the computer, and he’d stand back there and read over my shoulder (GRRRR!) so I set him up with his own account. And I was ‘friends’ with a bunch of his friends! It doesn’t help that how the desks are set up, even tho there are 2 computers & desks, there’s only one chair. There’s no way to rearrange the room, either! I recently started getting a bunch of friend requests from girls I went to bootcamp with! It’s neat to see what everyone has been up to, even if I had to pull out my year book to see exactly who some of them were. But once I saw a face to go with the name, I knew.

Random pic of wine bottle clothing - also suitable for GI Joe!

I love my iPod! We just got me one of those arm bands for it, so I don’t have to stick it down in my bra when I’m wandering around the house.

Oooh, I’m pretty excited – I got Randy on the decluttering kick! He’s got me beat on the amount, tho. He finally decided to donate the truck to Volunteers of America. It’s slightly ugly, with the rust around the wheel wells, etc. The tires are fairly new, but it’s temperamental. It doesn’t like traffic in warm weather, right now the hose that takes oil to the filter is rotten and leaking, and it occasionally doesn’t like to start in the winter. But it was fun to drive! The blue book value isn’t crap on it, but maybe the Volunteers can do something with it, and it gets out of our yard! Oh crap. I was going to incorporate it into my Halloween display next year. I was going to try to make it look like a wreck and put a slumped body or zombie or skeleton in the driver seat. Oh well, guess that won’t be happening. Angel was kind of bummed, since we told her it was going to be her first car. OMG, she might have to buy her own first car like Randy & I both did! Or she can inherit my Escort.

Alrighty. I have to go reclaim the living room where the laundry monster exploded. Yay. But the Wings are playing at 4, so I’ll be taking a break then.

pah-tay-tahs!