Why

Who do you coffee drinkers insist on a) having a laptop PC and b) always setting your coffee cup beside it?

You know what will inevitably happen.

Coffee drinkers should not be allowed to have laptops. I know, some of you are reading this blog, but I don't care. I'm on the other end of this shitty stick. I hate coffee, and there is a soaking wet laptop sitting behind me, stinking up my office. It smells DISGUSTING. It has just created extra work that I don't have time for.

Even more than last year

Tonight I braved the chilly outside to put up the exterior Halloween decorations. This year I've added 2 strings of blacklights. They'd look much better on the gutter than draped on the porch as they are now, but I don't have younger brother or boyfriend here to help with that. So railing it is!

Let's see, this weekend. I was so exhausted from work on Friday that I went home sick at lunch and just rested for the remainder of the day. It was nice. Saturday I spent around the house, went to church, chatted with John. Sunday was turkey dinner with T-L, Van and family. Dinner was delicious, thanks so much for inviting me again this year.

Monday I got up and started cleaning the house, doing laundry, and getting the indoor Halloween decorations up. My aunt from Halifax called that afternoon, said they were up at my grandfather's house and were cooking a turkey if I wanted to come for dinner, so I said sure. Two turkey dinners this weekend, not bad at all :)

Preparations are underway for the big visit at the end of the month. I've been putting off buying a desk for my office since before I moved out of my apartment. With John coming and needing to work from my house, this old desk I have just wasn't going to cut it. So off to Staples in search of a new desk. I caught a great deal, $50 off plus I had a $20 off coupon, bought it on Sunday and the delivered it yesterday. It still needs to be put together though. Either my brother or John will get that task. Depends on who gets here first... brother has not returned phone call yet :)

Today I went back to Staples and bought a new office chair. I've had the chair I am presently sitting on for close to 20 years, and it was used when I got it. Therefore, time for a new chair. It's currently in a box in my trunk, and I am going to see if I can remove it from the trunk in pieces and perhaps attempt to put it together. All that remains now is to buy a chairmat at Costco the next time I'm up there, which will be either the end of this week or sometime next week. Chairmats are much cheaper at Costco.

I started intermediate belly dance class last night. I was a little rusty, but remembered a surprising lot of moves for someone who hasn't touched it since June. This session sees us using finger cymbals (zils) and veils. I need to get to Wal-Mart or Fabricville in the next few days to buy some material to make a veil, either chiffon or organza, and then get some help to sew a hem on it. The hem has to be as small as possible, so as not to interfere with the flow of the fabric.

I think work may have finally started to calm down... but only for a few days. The next two weeks are the busiest of the whole year, so I have to be extra-available for any emergencies. Here's hoping there aren't any.

I think I will head out to the car and see what I can make of this chair. Won't spend too long on it... really want to catch up on the mountains of books I've been wanting to read.

Things to be thankful for

One of the topics of conversation between John & I centers around the difference in the real estate market between SoCal and SJ. We've talked about things like this during our many chats, but something really hit me tonight as I was home, catching up on the week's TV that I had taped.

The Adam Carolla Project is a new show on TLC, starring Adam Carolla (duh!) He goes to find a house to renovate in 13 weeks; he used to be a carpenter before he was a comedian. The first episode has him driving around looking for a house with his buddy's mom, a real estate agent. The first house they show him going into on camera was going for $800k US. 1100 sq ft. With paper-thin doors between bedrooms.

The second house they were in featured a giant steel billboard right at the side of the "front yard", if you can call it that. This was one ugly house. Ugly green dirty carpet. The backyard was a slab of cement. All that could be yours for the $400k US range.

The house he eventually bought to restore was his childhood home. He paid his Dad $739k for it. They are basically ripping it down to the studs and rebuilding, because it's all crap. It appears to have a nice chunk of land, but the house was crap.

It didn't really hit me, the full magnitude of what John was talking about, until I actually saw these two houses on TV and heard how much their asking prices were. I asked him how much a house like mine (3 years old, 1200 sq ft not including full basement), with this much land (0.44 acres) would cost in SoCal. He lives in a more swanky, upscale neighborhood, so he guesstimates $900k Canadian. $900k!!! This blows my mind. I won't say here what I paid for my house, but it started with a 1.

Unbelievable.

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I am thankful for a great many things, one of which is to be fortunate enough to own this house. Where I have a back and front yard, lots of room, a new lawn, and for what I now realize is a very comfortable price. I am very fortunate, and for that I give thanks.

You know what?

I'm going home now. I've worked 3 nights this week, and I think I need some time at home for myself tonight.

Boo to not flossing

Here's your daily reminder to floss.

Had to go to the dentist for a filling today, because I don't floss enough and developed a cavity between my teeth. The freezing didn't hit my tongue, which is good, as I can still talk. However, it reaches up to the bottom eyelid, and I can't smile, so I feel like a weird robot.

If I had a dog

and his name was Karaoke
I would feel like he died today.

What I'll be taping tomorrow night

Conan O'Brien is dedicating his whole Thursday night show to U2, who will be the only guest and will perform three songs. Woo-hoo!


btw, after posting this and immediately getting 3 spam, I decided I had to turn on word verification... sorry.

Long day #2

Not much to report today, I'm afraid. I worked until 9pm. Had supper from McD's and my fries weren't hot enough. Jenn IM'd about her dishwasher installation, which was completed tonight, yay! That's pretty much it. Tomorrow night I also have to work late.

Long day

What a day today. I wish people could read. I also wish people knew the difference between September and October, as that would have freed up a large portion of my day. I worked until 9:15 tonight. It's been a long day.

Thursday's dishwasher move went well, no flying dishwashers out of the back of the truck, so that was good. After depositing it at Stew's house, he treated Chris and I to Suwanna take-away for our troubles. I had Suwanna Chicken, which was strangely more hot than normal. Hmmm.

Friday was yet another busy day at work, so I was glad to have karaoke to end my day with. Had a total blast this week. I do have to compliment Jay on being in the zone, and attempting "Naughty Girls". Truly I will not forget that for a long, long time. Still laughing about it today.

After karaoke we headed to see Serenity, where I had my yummy bag of popcorn (mmmm, popcorn) and offered deadly peanut butter cups to Anthony (forgetting about his allergy, but as he so eloquently reminded me, "No thanks, those'll kill me.") I thought the movie was good, but definitely a movie for the fans of Firefly. I wouldn't have gone to see it if I hadn't watched the series. I did kind of miss the intimacy of the series, the ability to squeeze in more time with each individual character. But the point of this movie was to wrap up the plotlines, not create new ones. I won't spill any secrets here, but there were some choices made with regards to the story that I just didn't understand. Mostly good, but one event I didn't get the point of.

Saturday night was impromptu Girls' Night, where Mare, Jenn and I went to lemongrass and then picked up Lisa and went back to my place for some karaoke. We had a great time, though I think I prefer picking my own songs :)

Sunday saw me looking after some outside work. I watered the lawn, bought shelves for the garage, crazily tried to get giant mirror in my cart at Wal-Mart. Thankfully a nice man came along and helped me before I hurt someone/thing. Then a nice lady with a tattoo carried it out to my car for me. I guess I looked pretty pathetic. But I finally have a full-length mirror. Got a lot of other stuff done around the house, but still lots left to do.

The dehumidifier farm in my basement is working away. The 3 of them are still filling up about every 12h. Wood is damp, did I mention that?

I got a call about belly dancing class starting up again. I am in intermediate this time, and it starts next Tuesday night. Haven't touched a single step since June... I am no doubt pretty rusty. If/when I hear about beginners classes, I'll let you know.

I love that October is finally here. Leaves. Turkey. Halloween. Visit from American boyfriend, who just finished booking his flights, btw. Done deal. He'll be here around lunchtime on Friday the 29th, back home again early morning on Sunday Nov. 6, and I can't wait. Now I just need to make sure he's awake enough, after taking a red-eye, to attend karaoke that night. Don't make me choose between karaoke and boyfriend... cruel, cruel world! ;)

Dear $410 boots,

I love you too. But you have to understand that we can't be together right now. You are in Toronto, and I am in SJ. I just spent thousands of dollars on my lawn, my dishwasher & washer need repair, and I can't afford to bring you here to meet my feet.

Maybe someday...

Happy Dishwasher Day

to Jenn & Stew, who pick up their new dishwasher tonight. I get to pick up a truck from Dad and drive it for them so we can pick it up at Sears. Memories of George! Except this will likely be a 1/2 ton.

It's not such a happy dishwasher day for me, however. My dishwasher is still sitting, broken, in my kitchen. I called on Tuesday to schedule a service call, and they can't come until Friday. I've been on a dish rationing system since I heard that. I did do one batch of dishes by hand [shudder] and ended up with water all over me. I hate shallow sinks. When I build my own house, I am getting the deepest sink I can find.

The repair centre called me this morning to tell me they were having problems validating the extended warranty on my washer. Which I had bought with my ex and are in his name, but under my phone number. Oh please don't let me have to get in touch with him about this... he hasn't spoken to me since my birthday last year. So I call the warranty people, and they helped me out and authorized the work [phew]. Crisis averted there.

Work has been INSANE this week, what with my being away last week. I have 3 pages of things that have come up in the last few days that need my attention.

Good news is that I asked my boss for time off on Halloween, so I can spend the day with John while he is here. I also was approved for the week in February I wanted so I can go to California. Now all that's left is getting the ticket, which I should do soon.

My lawn is growing away. Thankfully it's been wet enough that I haven't done too much with the sprinker. I will prob have to put it on this weekend though, supposed to be sunny. I called the landscaper and they recommended we let it go for now. If there are any more heavy rains it will just wash out again. If we let it grow around the washout, at least there will be grass nearby to help hold things together. Sounds like a plan. I also signed up for fertilizer and lime application next month. I will gladly pay someone else to deal with that, it is not that expensive and means I don't have to buy materials/tools.

The continuing saga of the moldy basement

I borrowed the dehumidifier from Jenn & Stew, and my Dad also brought his down from the cottage. They are filling up about every 12h. That is one moist basement I have down there.

I headed to Costco yesterday after I finished work, with a work friend to help lift the dehumidifier I was going to buy. We get there, and all I can find is the demo unit with a price tag on it. It's missing a wheel, and the remote is nowhere to be found. I ask if there are any more, but none until the end of October, nor was there a discount on the floor model. Well, crap. I spent the rest of the evening running around Moncton looking for the same/similar model, thinking Moncton, hub of NB, would have more selection than SJ. No such luck. Every store I went into, when I asked for a dehumidifier, the clerk gave me a look and said I don't know if we have any left. Apparently they are a popular item right now. Home Depot didn't have anything big enough. Canadian Tire in Moncton was helpful, but didn't have the item.

I came home from Moncton and went back online to check how long it would take to get here if I bought it from costco.ca (7-10 business days - too long). I looked again at canadiantire.ca and saw you could check stock in-store. It turns out the exact model I needed was down the street at my friendly neighborhood Canadian Tire West. They got my business this morning by having what I needed in stock, when I needed it. Go West Side! So the nice man took the box out to my car, and it is currently sitting in my car as it is too heavy for me to lift out. Hopefully I can convince Stew & Chris to give me a hand later tonight after dishwasher duty is over.

I may dub this new dehumidifier I bought "R2". It's on wheels, and comes with a remote! I wonder if it will also fill the woodstove for me... hope there's a button on it for that.

Let's recap, shall we?

In the continuing saga of "things that have gone wrong since I got home":

• Due to the heavy rains while I was away, my new lawn has washed-out areas.
  
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I think I made it worse
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I had an extra 2 showers yesterday. I am considering skipping the bathroom shower in the morning and just taking it in the backyard when I turn the sprinkler on.
• Due to the excess moisture in my basement, I now have mold. Thankfully Jenn and Stew have lent me their dehumidifier until I am able to get to Costco on Wednesday to buy my own, for $80 less than Canadian Tire. I am trying to look at this in a positive light by appealing to my shopping side.
• Due to the fact that I am incredibly lazy at flossing, the dentist told me this morning that I have a cavity and have to go back next week for a filling.
• Due to the fact that I attract bad luck, my dishwasher is sitting with a pile of water in the bottom of it that won't drain. I can't find anything stuck and there is a seal that looks broken. Since I didn't buy the dishwasher, I am not sure if it is under an extended warranty, but I vaguely remember the previous owner telling me that it was. I dug out the documentation she left me, but it is just the user manual. The manual does have the repair company's phone number written on it though, which leads me to believe that they've called about it before. If so, great, should be on file. If not, crap, that means I have to call Leon's, and I am not a huge fan of Leon's.

Welcome home.

Just when you think you're caught up

So I've been cleaning up the house a bit since I've been back. Unpacking led me to clean out the floor of my bedroom closet. By clean out, I mean stick stuff in a box and carry it to the basement.

While I was in the basement, I walked over to my bookshelves to put a couple of books on them... what's that? Ah crap. Mold. F***. From the Great Flood of '05, the shelves of the bookcases came into contact with floodwater.

I bet there's also mold at the bottom of the stairs, from when the carpet got wet and I couldn't do anything about it... yup.

[huge sigh]

I figured this would happen at the bottom of the stairs. Wasn't planning on the bookshelves getting moldy though, so now I have to trash them. Dammit. That really blows, but at least they can be thrown out and that's that.

So what do I do about the bottom of the stairs? I guess the carpet and baseboard will have to be ripped up and replaced. At least I'm lucky in that this is the only area with carpet, and I believe the only area with mold.

I will have to go dehumidifier shopping this week. I guess the wood in the basement is what brought in even more moisture... Dad told me I should get a dehumidifier last year, but I made it through ok without one. Guess not anymore.

Parts of my lawn got washed out by the huge amount of rain we had while I was away. I have to call the landscaper tomorrow and let them know. I attempted to water the lawn today with my new hose & sprinkler. I think I got most of the sprinkling. Then it started drenching it too much... I am just a disaster when it comes to this outside stuff.

I am now off to research dehumidifiers... glad I kept that subscription to Consumer Reports.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay, it's my birthday!!!!!!!

Hope everyone can make it over to my place tonight for some karaoke.

I made it home safe & sound last night, but man, what a long day. I got up at 8am (4 Pacific) and arrived in SJ at 11:30pm.

So karaoke at my place tonight, come on over after work. I think I will treat myself to some Chinese food at China Kitchen... bring on the BBQ spareribs :)


Because it's my birthday and I get to do whatever I want, here are some pics of birthdays past. My Photoshop skills are limited to cropping, so these don't look that great, but at least you can have a laugh :)




Here's me at my first birthday. Back when I was still in my "pose for the camera" stage.








This must be my 2nd birthday, because that's not my house. We moved between my 2nd & 3rd birthdays.












I have no idea why I have this expression on my face but it's funny! This is my 3rd birthday, the first of many in our new house.
















This is me on my 5th birthday, holding my 5 day old little brother. He was still little at the time, now he's a foot taller than me :)

Looks like some pen ink rubbed off onto this pic too. I am going to have to acquire some more Photoshop skills :)

Birthday Karaoke on Friday

I'm having some issues sending email from here to certain domains, so a blog entry is going to have to do.

In case you didn't notice it in my list of events, karaoke is going to be held at my place on Friday night as part of the birthday extravaganza weekend. I have the day off, so whenever people want to show up is cool with me (i.e., if you want to come over straight from work, that's cool). It's supposed to rain from what I see in the forecast, so that excludes BBQ, so I guess we'll have to come up with something else. Since I've had a long day at the conference, I can't work my brain enough to come up with any decent suggestions. Figure that out later.

Don't bring presents, just bring yourself. Hope to see you all on Friday :)

So the desert is hot

Before I forget, here is the view from my room. It is one of the holes of the golf course, where they hold a PGA tournament every year:
Not too shabby :)

Friday started out with my waking up around 2:30am, which is about on par with when I start to wake up at home for work, so that was expected. Checked my Blackberry for email, had a couple already. Made myself go back to sleep and woke up once again, but finally got up at 8:30. That's some good quality sleeping in, especially since I went to bed at 10.

After first stopping for some decent maps, John picked me up and we needed some breakfast. Now, bear in mind that though I had heard spectacular things about Krispy Kreme, I had never actually had any donuts from there, so this was my first experience. We had a nice server who after finding out I was from Canada gave me a Krispy Kreme mug to go along with my donut purchase. My first donut of choice was a chocolate dip... I have a new obsession. It melted in my mouth it was so good. I won't be able to eat crappy Tims donuts anymore after that, wow. This may become breakfast for the rest of the week!! We each had 2 donuts and then left the rest for later (amazingly they survived the heat in the car; very resilient, these donuts.)

Upon leaving there, I snapped a pic this "car", which appears to be missing a vital part


We left Krispy Kreme and headed further out of the city towards Saguaro National Park. We first made a stop at the International Wildlife Museum, or as we later found out its "true" name, the Dead Animal Museum. Lots of taxidermy and Supercroc!

We left the museum and headed towards the actual National Park, but the normal road to access the park was closed so we were left to take an alternate route. We stopped at the Vistors' Centre and went to pay the park entrance fee. We stopped to talk to one of the staff to get a trail map because we intended on walking a trail or two. He asked if we lived closer to any other national parks because it would be cheaper to get an annual park pass, but we said no, since John doesn't live close and I certainly don't because I'm from Canada. He asked me what part, and I said the East Coast (not figuring anyone here has any idea.) He said try me, so I told him New Brunswick, and then he said something about Fredericton, and I asked where he was from: get this.... he said Bangor!!! Of all places, I ran into someone from Bangor, can you believe that?!?! So we had a nice chat about NS, PEI, NB and Bar Harbor/Yarmouth. Unreal.

We headed out to the first trail, armed with lots of water, sunscreen, hats and a crazy idea that we could walk in 38 degree heat. By the end of it I thought I might die, and at one point in my heat-induced delirium I actually uttered the words: "I wish I had snow right now." Scary. I think I went insane there for a minute.

We did manage to do the whole trail and saw great scenery such as this:



Standing there looking at miles of cacti, and no tall trees like I am used to, is quite a sight to behold. I wasn't expecting to see the huge dichotomy of flat desert with tall mountains in the immediate horizon. The saguaro cacti are everywhere here, they really are the tallest vegetation around. It just seemed so weird to me, especially thinking of the tall evergreen and deciduous trees right in my backyard.

On our way back from the park, we saw this sign on the road. After almost croaking from the heat, and being out in the desert, this has to be one of the weirdest sights to behold:

"Ice forms on bridge first" Who knew?

Friday evening was spent tracking down some much needed Halloween decorations. Ok, well, maybe not "needed" but definitely desired :) Target was a disappointment for Halloween, unlike last year. I did happen to stop by Wal-Mart to look for karaoke CDs (nothing we didn't already see in Portland) and picked up some stuff for Halloween. I nabbed 2 sets of outdoor blacklights (like outdoor xmas lights), some candles for jack o'lanterns, 2 more carving kits, the new power saw for carving (can't wait to try that one!!!) So a decent haul this time around thanks to Wal-Mart.

I also hit Costco, where I picked up a book (Shopaholic & Sister) and drooled over some really nice xmas ornaments that I couldn't take back with me. I then stumbled on a really nice pillow, agonized over whether to buy it b/c it was $35 US. Walked back & forth down the aisle a couple of times, then gave in.

After that we weren't feeling up to the task of karaoke, I had overeaten at supper and wasn't feeling so great. We stayed in and watched some TV. I also got to open my birthday present - a beautiful crucifix necklace in white gold with a sapphire in the middle. I absolutely love it.

Saturday was a pretty slow day really. Did a little more shopping around, and after sleeping on the new pillow, I decided it wasn't worth $35 and took it back. Both of us were recovering from either not enough sleep or time zone issues, so we ended up napping and missing church. Thankfully I did manage to wake up in time for the meet & greet, so I headed there and saw lots of familiar faces and met some new people to mark the start of the conference.

Sunday morning was tough as we had to part... it was hard. I had the conference to distract me and it was full of info. I met another customer from Ohio and I think I made his day by discussing parts of how I do my job, and even gave him a demo of some reporting I do after bringing my laptop down to the conference. Also had a nice dinner with my main support guy, it was nice to sit and chat with him one on one. After that, I came back to my room to finally start to write some emails back to people, when my co-workers came along and coaxed me down to the pool/jacuzzi, so I gave in for a bit.

So all in all a great time so far. I am really looking forward to making plans for future visits with John and spending more time together. :)

Monday ends up with my having a good chunk of the day to myself, so I hope to get some more shopping in. And now that it is the equivalent of 4am at home, I think it's time to go to bed!

Enquiring minds want to know

So yes, I am in Tucson, AZ. It's 9:40pm (1:40am Atlantic) and my eyes are glazing over from being so tired, but I know you people will be sending me a zillion emails if I don't talk about my first day here.

Got up at 3:30am to go to the airport. Stupid AC ticket agent said I needed to get Tucson boarding pass in Denver, whereas my co-worker got her pass from another agent 2 seats away. Apparently not all ticketing agents are the same.

In Toronto I got searched, love having them go through all of my delicates. Great.

Managed to sleep on most of the flights, except the Denver-Tucson flight because I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, which I did. It doesn't look quite as grand from that far up but I am sure that it is in person.

Checked in at the hotel, pretty swanky. Will take some pics tomorrow. My room overlooks either one of the greens of the golf course or a practice green, I didn't look at it long enough to see.

[when are you going to get to the part about the date, already????] Ok, ok!

We met up around 4:30, he picked me up at the hotel and we headed to Olive Garden for dinner. Both a little too nervous to eat all of our meals, but we had a great time talking and laughing. I think I made the table next to us glance over at my sometimes-loud laughter. Oh well :)

We then decided to get me back to the hotel because it was late and even with naps I'd had a pretty long day. We then proceeded to take every street in North Tucson known to man in order to get back to my resort... if I'd received those maps like I'd ordered, we wouldn't have had that problem... stupid maps!!! Anyway, we had a lot of laughs trying to get out of going around in circles. I had a great time tonight and am looking forward to the rest of the weekend :)

Tomorrow we're heading to Saguaro National Park, where I'll be sure to make numerous Wile E. Coyote references at all the cacti. Karaoke may be in the works for tomorrow night as well... after we get an official map of the city :)

Today in the NFL...

Now I really look different compared to the neighbors...

Possible new home for the New Orleans Saints? No, wait, it's my backyard...


Just look at the badminton court potential!




Holy crap, do I ever have a lot of lawn to mow. Thankfully I should only have to do it once or twice before it gets too cold.

Highlight of my day, thus far

I scored a free labelmaker! Used, but looks new to me. Nice one too, takes 6-18mm tape. Woo-hoo!

You asked for it

Monday morning again and I get to look back upon the weekend that was.

Last post saw me having a relatively calm Thursday morning, hoping the afternoon would be just as calm... and through that tempting of fate my afternoon exploded. Enough said.

Thursday night I met up with Cyn for some supper at Swiss Chalet, and then some Suzy-made eclairs at Opera. Very yummy all around, especially the eclair - delicious. It was great to hang out with Cyn and have some laughs, pondering over the craziness of Roomie.

Friday was another day of work and then on to pick up Cyn and go to karaoke. Yes, we do have a problem. We pretty much owned the bar again and the list was pretty short, so a lot of songs were sung. I had been out of practice, so I found myself off until about my 4th song. I stuck to songs I'd done before for the most part, in order to get some practice in for a night of karaoke in Tucson. The short list did allow me to stick in a couple of new songs, so I picked a Heart tune to try out, and was then challenged by Suzy to do a 70s Heart tune (Crazy On You). Not like I didn't know every nuance of the song, so why not? Much fun!

We've decided that 2nd karaoke has too much country and a bad sound system, so we went in search of another place to sing. No luck on that front for a Friday night. We ended up going to Sobeys so Jenn could get some groceries, and then I dropped Cyn and Jenn off and came home.

I got a call Friday night from my co-worker, who said she'd be able to go over the border for me and check the mailbox for the maps of Tucson I had ordered. Excellent, don't have to drive down myself. With the Portland shopping trip not so long ago, I didn't really have a reason to go down there. She called later on Saturday and said they weren't there... argh! Glad I didn't drive down there for nothing, but I had to call this morning and request a credit. So much for planning ahead.

Saturday morning now being free, I was able to sleep in and then do some IMing. Headed off to my hair appointment, realizing I had forgotten my collection envelope for church. What I should have done after leaving the salon was go home to get the envelope, but instead I headed to Wal-Mart to get something. Realized by the time I pulled into Wal-Mart that I was going to be late for church because I still had to go home and get the envelope. Ran into T-L and Van, who saw me looking a little frazzled after knowing I was running late, but I stopped to talk to them anyway. Grabbed the thing I needed, then proceeded to the checkout. She rang up the item and I didn't notice it was overpriced until after I saw the receipt - came up as 12.97 instead of 9.97. Then had to go through the whole calling down to dept, going over to service desk for adjustment... the cashier was great about it, it was just that I was already running late and I am too cheap to let something like that go. Drove home, grabbed the envelope, and snuck into church during the Glory to God.

After church I saw my aunt, uncle and cousins and they stopped to chat, which was nice. Hadn't seen them since June. They've been spending most every weekend at their cottage in Charlotte Co. Got home from church and had some BBQ for supper, then spent the rest of the night on IM and plotzing over a music project that saw me downloading songs for a cd I was making for someone, that has now turned into more of a 2 cd set and is more for me now than anyone else... guess I got a little too excited about it and have now claimed it partially for myself. I'll make 2 copies :)

Sunday was a busy day, I had to get laundry done and start digging out the suitcases to begin packing. Also wasn't physically feeling all that well, it had been a stressful week, I'd been slack in walking and my body was not liking the fact that I wasn't getting enough exercise. The sight of suitcases also did not do much for my state. While I have done plenty of traveling in my life, I dislike it a lot. I like being in new places, and going home, but I hate the "getting there" portion of a trip. Whether it be by plane or by car, the getting there always seems to take forever and is very tiring despite the fact that you're just sitting around. My body also apparently knows when I'm about to leave town, and decides to do a bit of churning. I don't have any fears of flying or driving, it's just this weird psychosomatic thing I have. Now that I am sitting here thinking about it again, stomach is already churning. [sigh]

Packing is always difficult, but I am finding this trip more of a challenge than normal. In last year's hot locale of San Antonio, I realized quickly that I hadn't brought enough clothes. Sure, you can pack light and only bring a couple of each item. Problem is, unless you want to spend the money, you can't do laundry while you're away, and in a hot place you're only going to get one wear out of any given outfit. That means this year I have to pack more clothes, which means larger suitcases and more heavy lifting. 2 suitcases, a carry-on and a laptop. I just can't pack light this time. Not if I want to bring anything back!

I gave Lisa & Anthony a call and dropped by their place to pick up Lisa's karaoke gear for the big birthday karaoke weekend (email coming soon). Have a great trip to Vienna you two! Can't wait to see the pictures.

Spent the rest of Sunday night IMing with a couple of people and watching the Colts vs Ravens. I joined a NFL pool again this year, no money involved this time. I am currently in a tie for 3rd, one point behind the 2 leaders, which is pretty cool. May not stay there during the season, but if I can have some good weeks I'll be happy. Having been out of the football loop last year, basically only watching the Superbowl and that's it, I feel a little rusty.

This week will be tough, trying to pack and get organized, making sure everything pressing is done before I go. That includes bridesmaid dress shopping. I had an email from the bride on Friday night, and she has bought her dress and the maid of honor has ordered hers, all in one afternoon. Now the panic is on for me to get to the shop, try some things on and get it ordered. Pretty much the only time I can do this before I go is Wednesday night, because that's when the bridal salon is open in the evening. At least I know the designer and color, I just need to pick a style, and make sure it can get here in time so I can still have time for alterations if I need them.

Gettng more and more nervous as the days get closer and closer... more on that later.