Eye Candy Friday

So, today I'll get the rest of the house together because I too like to start the new year out right, and I've been in a funky funk so will work more on figuring out why that is.    Of course, I was off work all week and didn't get as much done as I had hoped, do we ever?   But I did accomplish getting the kids school stuff organized and into smaller boxes - I have all their awards, report cards, programs, etc saved in case they every want them.   My mom didn't do that for mine, which I didn't mind until I found out she did for my sister.   And I'm HOW old?  I got the tree down, the house is still relatively clean, life actually is good.

Here's a picture of the Hyperbolic corched coral reef, it is awsome.   If you're in the D.C. area go see it, it isn't just one huge exhibit, itis many huge exhibits.

Have a Happy and Safe New Years Eve!

Playing Tourist

Today while DD was spending his last few days on leave, he decided it was time to be a tourist.   His sister and I were game, I mean really, we live within 20 miles of Washington D.C. and avoid the city at all costs.  

When the kids were little their dad would take the spring vacation week off to stay home with them, and theywould visit a museum or two, maybe go to the zoo, have fun.   And we are fortunate in this area that most of those things are free.  

So I told him the day was his.   We went to the Viet Nam Wall, the Lincoln Memoria, the Korean Memorial, the WWII Memorial and the Technology portion of the Smithsonian to see the trains and cars.

Why do I tear up at these places?

Korean Memorial

Washington Monument from Steps of Lincoln Memorial

WW II  Memorial

Another view of Korean Memorial, it is a marble wall that has faces watermark kinda on the marble, and then it reflects the soldiers in the field

Lincoln Memorial

Transition Week - 10 on Tuesday

This is the week between the holidays that is most in limbo.  Christmas celebrations are over, family is either gone or making noises about leaving, kids are catching up with their friends before everyone scatters back to where they belong.  Resolutions are being made.    I don't typically make resolutions because then I feel bad when I don't succeed with them and one thing I've learned about myself is if I declare that I'm going to do something, I somehow make sure that I never do.   It took me until a couple of years ago to realize that and I'm still trying to figure out how to get around it.

So, here's my list of  10 things I would like to accomplish in 2011 in random order and with no pressure to make sure they are actually successfully completed.

1.  Knit more.   This won't be too hard, I'm doing a KAL and one of the things I'm organizing this week while I'm off is all my UFOs and projects I have yarn and patterns for but haven't started.   

2.  Go meatless for 2 dinners a week.  

3.   Stop checking Ravelry while at work all the time.   Really.   I've got hugs projects to start in January and won't have the time anyway.   And it is very poor work ethic to be on Ravelry when I should be working, or at least doing homework.

4.   Get control of how much I eat.   I started using smaller plates in an effort to have portion control.  So that means I go back for seconds.   Really NOT my intention.

5.    Get the treadmil fixed.    The belt has been broken for over a year.   First I didn't get it fixed because I wasn't working and it seemed not a good use of my available cash when I could go outside for free.  Now I work again, I need it to work.    Of course, I have to crawl on the ground to find the model number, but really, this is something I can do this week.

6.    Remember to take my camera when I go places and actually use it.

7.    Spin more and then use the yarn to make something.   I got a woolie winder, it is making simply lovely yarn.   While I don't like the chatter the bobbin makes, I LOVE the product.

8.   Reduce the grocery bill.   Going meatless twice a week will help, but really, I need to start thinking about replacing my truck, and I am already on a yarn/fiber diet.

9.    Save for a new truck.   Mine is gonna crap out one of these days, but keeping fingers crossed that it lasts until spring/summer of 2012.   It can be my graduation present - we won't discuss how many years it is actualy taking me to get my degree.

10.  Continue being kind.   Yeah, well people who know me would never accuse me of being kind.  But when someone does something unkind, like cutting me off in traffic, running over me with the shopping cart, that kind of thing, I now just look at them and remind myself that they will get theirs.  Then I try to smile and wave at them, because that usually confuses them.   I am a firm believer in what goes around comes around, and I don't want to be a cranky old lady when I'm old and grey.  Well, I'm grey now, but Miss Clairol fixes that for me quite nicely once a month.

One Week

I have the next week off.   What I would like to do is get the basement finally cleaned and organized.   And I'd like to sit in my comfy chair in my happy room and knit all week.   And I'd like to bake yummy stuff to eat.   Unfortunately I don't feel like doing anything!    I wanted to finish a pair of socks today.   The toes keep looking like elf toes.    I need to finish a market bag.   Using flax.  It just plain is bothering my hands, but not like cotton does - oh yeah, I've got a market bag in cotton I need to finish too.   Ive got another two pair of stocks to get off the needles and I've got a pair for me I want to start in sparkly yarn. 

But, I did get my happy room half cleaned today, I got hooks and a pole hung on the wall and draped an antique quilt made by my great great, maybe great grandmother.  

Tomorrow DS, DD and I are off to do tourist things in D.C.   Will have to bundle up because the boy gave me his list of places he wants to go to, and most of them are outside.    Well, they say the wind will die down later tonight.   Let's hope.

Merry Christmas

It has been blessedly quiet here this season, even with all the little kidlets home, and my baby is 6' tall, so I guess not so "little" anymore.

Today has been extra quiet, all children are out visiting friends, left chores for me, which is a-okay, I have spent the day thus far, cleaning up my girl cave - pictures to follow.   Getting the kitchen back in order which didn't take nearly as much time as it could have, and knitting and running errants.  DM's blackberry broke.   DT's blackberry broke two weeks ago about the sametime my non-blackberry bit it.   I told both of them when I had my phone replaced, be sure to set your phone so the numbers save to your sim card.   If you don't and the phone craps out, you're out of luck.    DM said okay.   However, he did not heed my words.   He did not heed my words in June when he dropped his phone into the sewer system so had to make use of the insurance plan he had on a phone he had owned for 3 weeks.   At that time I said, write those numbers down somewhere, or type them into a program on your computer.   Something.   Okay mom, he said.   HA!   So I took my little self out in the snow to the repair center since this is something I could do for my boy while he was out playing and thus out of my hair.  They said, oh, this phone is broken,  then they said, oh, his sim card is empty and there is no way we can get the contacts off his phone.   It won't come on no matter what we do.    Oh well.

This is my new favorite mug of which I am enjoying a warm drink now waiting for the stupid snow to finally start.   I want snowmagedden.

Arggg, they just said on the radio we dodged a huge, huge storm.   WHY???????  Comeon weather, it is Sunday, I don't have to go to work until January 3rd.   I want snow!

Cell Phones

I never read all the directions for the new phone I got last May - I KNOW there's a shocker huh? I went to the repair shop today because my phone touch screen died. That is after the keyboard quit working properly, it either wouldn't acknowledge that I typed a letter or it printed that letter 3-4 times.  And it would randomly delete my contacts.   It has been a true pain in the ass not having a phone for a week.

The repair center was very nice, I didn't have to wait, they replaced my phone with narry a second thought.  I was in there less than 10 minutes.    It helped of course that there were  two staff people and only one other customer.   The guy also said that Apple has the patent on touch screens so everyone else has taken the palm pilot type screens that used a stylus and tried to make them sensitive enough to handle fingers touching them. It isn't working so well for the most part and people are not happy.  And I'll admit as the screen started to crap out, I would "punch" it more often than gently touch it, since it didn't acknowledge a gentle touch.
So, on my way home, I stopped at the store where I bought the phone since I had to go by it anyway, and told myself, if there was no line, I would see about getting a new phone on the cheap. If there was a line, I would just wait until next May.   There was not only no line, but no customers. Guess cuz it's apouring down with the rain.

So, I put the phone on the desk of the store owner and said I hate this phone.  I've always hated it.  I just came from the repair center where they told me I can expect more problems. What can we do?

Ya know, I think these guys at this particular store are smarmy. Not quite snake oil salesmen, but smarmy.  They are very nice, don't get me wrong, very helpful and professional.    Just a little smarmy (I must like that word today).     He said well let me see . . . first he asked what I wanted.

Well a phone that worked would be good, but I need to dial out, receive calls and text message. I don't use it for pictures, I don't get on line with it, I wouldn't know what to do with an app if my life depended on it - and I don't want to pay for that crap. So he showed me a few phones, I went with the first one. it is a samsung Evergreen.   It has a key pad with numbers so I can dial. No more touch screen for me - YEA!

It has the slide out key pad for typing text messages. I told him that was the only thing I liked about the old phone and he said they all have that now. And an app setting and camera and all that other stuff I don't know what to do with, but I think that is standard.

Then he said (and here's the schmarmy part) let me call a special number and see if we can get you a deal on a new phone.   Riiiight. So, the phone I wanted was $30 if you were a new customer signing up for a 2 year contract. He said that the deal they would cut me was $50 and I had to extend my contract on just my phone for an extra 6 months.   I sat and thought about it for a second.  I remembered all the times my husband has wanted something sometimes for no other reason than he wants it, even if it isn't a good deal, or a deal at all, and I said okay.

THEN I find out that my old phone was never set up to store numbers onto the sim card, just into the phone WTF??????? SO he set the new phone up for that, then the sim card died, so he had to replace that.

I have about 5 contacts on the new phone.   Bummer, I'll have to look up numbers this week.   And send emails to people who I don't have their numbers written down and ask for them again.   But, I've downloaded the manual and will start reading in Thursday.

I have a button to push to answer the stupid thing, there is a hang up button, and I'm assuming the text messaging is the same as on the old phone. The rest . . .

I think the guy felt a little sorry for me that I apparently have so few friends. Of course a few weeks ago I painfully added all my work peeps. grrrrr

Ho Ho Ho

Dreary day, of course we have lots of  wet, but that just brings  fog since when it has been really cold here, and the sun  shines, and then  the clouds and moisture come, of course the warm air comes too so we get rain and fog not snow.    I'm sure the people in the mid-west would be glad for my rain/fog.    I would be glad for their snow.   I am not glad to hear that the roads will probably be icy in the morning though :(

Still working on that old holiday spirit.   I'd wanted to get a tree yesterday, but that didn't happen and I wanted to study more for my test, but that didn't happen either.   I studied a lot, there is  still so much more.   Why is it that you have to memorize all sorts of useless stuff for a test that if you ever needed to  use again, would be readily available to look up in a matter of seconds?    I understand  memorization is important, but I also understand that I'm old, there is a lot that I know, and a lot that I don't know but I know how to figure it out.    That's how I got my last job.   When asked about all the stuff I didn't know, my pat answer was "I'll figure it out".    And I have.   Bah!

okay, now I'm off to study for a bit more then go to the cell phone store because my phone is really unhappy.    First it started deleting contacts randomly.   They just disappeared out of my list.   However, if someone called, their name popped right up, so what's up with that?    Now the touch screen doesn't work.    Since that is where I dial out, check messages, sent text messages, I'm without. 

Neglect

I've neglected many things in the past couple of weeks.   I've had finals on my mind   The stress has not been so much I'll do poorly, because at this point I think that is a given - yep, let this class totally defeat me and relishing in the agony of it, and have been focusing on just getting through with it.   I attend every class, I do the work assigned, I've done the extra, extra credit, I'm just plain done. 

I've neglected the house, not too bad though because over the years I've gotten into a few routines, so while we are a little dishevlished, we aren't totally trashed.   Except DS's room but that's his problem, I don't clean his room anymore since he's all grown up. 

I've given serious thought to getting a roomba for the house.   On the one hand, it would help tremendously with dust and cat hair.  On the other hand, do I really want to spend the money?    I'd really like a drum carder (which is more than the roomba) but somehow it doesn't feel as hard to shuck out money for fiber arts as it does cleaning.   On the other hand, if I had the roomba going, I'd have more time for fiber arts.    Decisions, decisions.

So today, I've got to get to the market since tomorrow is suppose to be cold and rain . . . all day.   I have a yard to clean up, that isn't even my own, but I've got to clean up anyway.   Cookies to make.  Pies to make.  A final to study for.   A christmas tree to buy, put up and decorate.  Laundry to do.  And a house to clean up because the boy comes home next Sunday night.

Work is really getting in my way this week.

One Million Dollars

Incredible.  I work for a government agency.  I have a budget.    I love my budget.  It is 8 million dollars.   yep.    I keep an eagle eye on what the staff spents, and everyone wants to spend my budget before they spend their own money.    And to be fair, my budget covers things like building HVAC systems, repairs, maintenance, etc.

My boss was looking at my spread sheet for my budget where I keep track of every invoice I approve for payment and compared that to the "official" books from accounting.   I have spent one million more dollars than they are reporting.  That means that the invoices I have been sending to accounting aren't getting processed for payment.   WTF?????????

But as I pointed out to him, we know we're right and at least the books aren't showing that accounting has spent more money that we say we have - that would be a nightmare to try and figure out.

Wednesdays.

Sunday - Apparently Not a Day of Rest

So this morning DD and I went to the Smithsonian to do our last Biology project.   That had to be the most  boring thing I have ever done.  An hour and a half in one exhibit.

BUT the crochet coral reef exhibit was in the same building.

Saturday Dinner

It is a known fact that while I like to cook, sometimes, my meals are sporatically good and when I experiment (which is often) they are sometimes not fit for a dog.   I usually see something new that sounds good and either follow it to the letter, eveyone loves it, I lose the recipie so then improvise and it is never the same, or I improvise from the get-go. 

Since we're improving our  diets at home, I love soup and it is cold outside and I  saw a recipie on line yesterday, today seemed like a perfect day to try a new dish.    I knew there was meatloaf  in the refrigerator just in case.

I soaked black beans last night in chicken broth, added a little water before I went to bed and this morning they seemed good and wet.   Then I heated a soup pot and browned 1 large chopped onion, two grated  carrots and a couple stalks of celery in olive oil.   I added two heaping spoonfulls of minced garlic, some red pepper flakes, chili powder and fried for a few minutes.   Added the beans, the another box  of beef broth and  one can of diced tomatoes.  

Then I decided it should go into the crock pot.   I cooked it on low for 7 hours, and about  5, added a can of corn and a cup of  small pasta shells that I boiled on the stove for a few minutes first. and turned the crock onto high for about an hour.

I put some soup in the bowls, topped with a little shaved parmesan cheese.

Oh. My.

My picky eaters are on thirds.    I was hoping that there would be enough for my lunch this week.   Guess not.

SCORE!

Slowly

Things are very slowly getting back to normal - or as close to "normal" as they ever are around here.   Some kind of bug came to visit the day after Thanksgiving and it has been a long and unwelcome visitor in this house.

While I was thinking about that I was thinking about this last year and the changes.   It all started when I quit a job I simply could not tolerate  anymore.   It took me a long time to realize I couldn't do it anymore and even longer to screw up the nerve to actually turn in my notice.     Getting screamed at in the middle of a busy sidewalk actually helped cement my decision to do it  on the spot.    But I digress.

Then I was semi-employed working for myself.   Then I temped for awhile.   I went back to school.   That comes and goes with the "going well" part of life.   Then because my husband decided to retire, I decided it was imperative that I go back to work.  I lost weight and gained it back.   My boy came home from Iraq and live has moved right along  quite swimmingly.

In the last 365 days the sun has come up a bit brighter every day, the little things in life don't send me right over the edge anymore, and I'm actually happy every morning.   Well, not this week, but that's cuz of the "houseguest" we've not completely evicted yet. 

Christmas is in a few weeks.   Nope, not ready yet except in my head, but will remedy that some this weekend.   Army boy will be home for a week, this semester will be done in a week - oye, and Stanley will be able to go out side again soon.

Three Things on Thursday

What three things am I thinking about today?

1.  We went to a funeral this morning the wife of one of DH's oldest friends passed away the day after Thanksgiving.  She was 58 years old.   Nita lit up a room whenever she went into it.   She was loud, funny and down to earth.   You knew where you stood with her and she never met a stranger who didn't become a friend.   Today as I was listening to the service and eulogy, it occurred to me that her family was truly blessed to have her for a wife, mom, sister, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandma.   All she ever wanted to be was a grandma.   I remember her talking about it when her kids weren't even teenagers yet.  

2.   How I really need to care more about what it is I'm doing and stop procrastnating, and be glad I'm alive and functional.

3.  It might snow this weekend :)    I know, some of you have more snow than you know what to do with or even want.   I'd like an inch or so thank you very much.