Happy New Year!

I'm going to try to start off the new year on the right foot, and get back to some semblance of blogging. I hope all my friends haven't forgotten about me already. I will promise to try not to let crackbook, I mean facebook, pull me in and keep me away from my friends.

Here is what I've been up to:

I had a very nice Christmas. I got a new digital camera; have not really looked at it yet to see what all it can do, but I know the zoom is better than my old camera. I also received two cd's (Kris Allen and Adam Lambert) and some money from an aunt and a sister, to spend on something.

That something was a new car. I got a letter from my Mitsubishi dealership that was offering to pay off the balance of my loan, give me a good trade in value for the car, plus I could take advantage of a tax break for buying a new car in 2009. My current (old) car, which isn't old, is/was a 2005 Mitsubishi Galant, with 88,400 miles on it. Yes, not even five years old and already had 88,000 miles on it. I drive it a lot LOL! Like any good procrastinator, I went to the dealership on Thursday afternoon about 3pm (they closed at 5pm). I was there until 7, but I got a new car, it's nicer than the base model I got last time, and it only costs me an extra $12 per month than what I was paying before. And that's only because I added the gap insurance, otherwise it would have been the exact same monthly payment. It's a 2010 Mitsubishi Galant, black, and I love it! When it actually gets anywhere close to freezing, I'll take a picture of it for you. It's so cold now, I think by the time I walked to my car the camera batteries would be frozen and I wouldn't even get a picture taken.

Today I ran some errands. I was too late to go to the Tollway office to get new velcro thingies for my IPASS, so I'll stop and get those Monday evening on my way home from work. The velcro thingies are to attach to the inside of my windshield to attach the transponder to, which is how I pay for my tolls every day to and from work. With the IPASS I pay $1.60 every day in tolls; without it my tolls would be double. So instead, I went to Kmart and bought some Christmas stuff for a discount: two boxes of Christmas cards, two Christmas turtlenecks (one with snowmen and the other with trees, snowflakes and ornameents), some sweats outfits (blue and black), and a Christmas sweatshirt for my aunt for her birthday in July. It's purple (her favorite color) and it has two polar bears on it with boughs of holly around their necks. I think she'll love it!

Yesterday I went to my aunt's house to return a Christmas present I got for her that didn't fit. It was a new computer chair. She's picked out a different one that will fit her better, so once the credit is back on my card, I'll order the other one for her. We also went out to lunch and to a movie; we saw Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. It was an excellent movie!

Tomorrow will be a stayathomeinside kinda day. Another bitterly cold day here in Chicago, best to stay inside under a blankie. I'll probaby watch some football, maybe read for a bit, just relax for one more day before I go back to work on Monday.

Speaking of work, all that overtime that I got this past year, from what...June to December? No more of that. The customer that was needing so much extra time from me, I'm pretty sure, has decided to use a new supplier for their steel for 2010. I'm sort of torn between how I feel. On the one hand, management of both companies won't let us handle the account as it needs to be handled, which leaves more room for opportunities to run them out of steel and shut their production line down, making life stressful. But then again, it is a customer, and I don't like to see us losing customers right now. I feel like I did something wrong, even though I know I didn't.

Some of you that I've known for years may recall how cold I get at the computer in the winter due to the draft from the window in this room. Well, I finally did something about it. Last year I had bought a box of the plastic that you put up over windows to keep out the cold air, but then couldn't find a blowdryer in my closet to save my life. Guess what magically showed up in my closet a few weeks ago? A blowdryer! I don't know where it was hiding but I'm glad it showed up. I put up the plastic and while I'm not toasty warm, partly due to the fact that I keep this room between 66-68F, it is much less drafty.

And with these bitter cold temps, I've got my portable heater going in the bathroom non-stop to try to keep the pipes from freezing. Or maybe I should let them freeze so I can get more new bathroom stuff? Like a new toilet? LOL That bathroom is the one really toasty warm spot in my apartment. I wish I could leave the heater going during the day when I'm at work, but I'm too afraid of a fire starting. First thing when I come home though, is to turn that heater back on and close both doors to the bathroom to keep as much heat inside it as possible.

Well, I think I'm pretty caught up on most things. And you're probably all bored to tears now anyway. Remember what I said at the beginning: I'm really going to try to blog more regularly in 2010 and not ignore my friends the way I did most of this year. For that I apologize. I love you all so much!