Chicago hasn't completely frozen over....yet!

Brrrrrrr it's COLD outside!!! And I heard it's pretty much below average temps all over the country. Gonna be even colder this weekend too! I'm going shopping, getting all my food for this weekend tomorrow night, and I'm staying in. I see no reason to go outside in 5 degree temps, except to start the car to keep the engine and gas tank from freezing. If it's going to be that cold where you are, make sure the gas tank in your car is nice and full before Saturday.

Now that I've done my public service announcement...lol. I went to the dentist tonight for my 6 month cleaning. I was ALMOST out of there when he says, "Sit back down, I want to look at something." Damn if he didn't find a small cavity! Now I get to go back in a couple weeks (on Valentine's Day) to get it filled. Good thing I never have plans for V-day, lol.

For those of you that read Kerry's blog, you know we've started sending music back and forth in email. Seems every time we try to do it over MSN, it acts up and won't transfer the files. And there seem to be so few times we're both on together and HAVE the time to transfer music. So, we're reduced to email. That's the only way we'll get caught up right now. Tonight, I will be sending her....the Kellie Pickler cd. I've only heard one song off it so far, Red High Heels. It's played all the time by the online country stations I listen to during the day at work. It's not bad.

Not much happening at work. It FINALLY slowed down for me and I'm working on getting caught up on the filing that has been accumulating for a year. Yes, I said a YEAR! Not hard, just never had time to do it, and now I do, lol. I'm thinking things will stay slow like this for me for a while. We're losing the business from one of our bigger customers in a month or so. Their slowdown in business and then the ending of that contract will keep me slow, and allow me to continue spending about half my day, on average, filing. Boring, but it's something to do.

Going to go start sending these song to Kerry so she has them in the morning when she wakes up, get something to eat, and plant myself in front of the tv at 7pm CST for Bones, then Idol.

MORE? YOU WANT MORE?? Ok, you asked for it...

This is my sister's mother-in-law, Katherine. She was in Hawaii with her son back in October. Can you believe this beautiful lady is 100 years old??? And what about that sunset!! I didn't see anything like this when I was there, it was too overcast. *pouts*

You can see part of the pool in this picture. This is the patio we sat on every morning and every evening. We ate breakfast lunch and dinner out here (when we weren't eating out.) The darker wicker chairs and table are no longer there. Instead the chaise lounger that's currently behind the pole is there with another matching one, plus a table. There's also a huge hammock just off to the left, omg so comfortable. The pool is cool because as you're in it you look out to the ocean, and the outside edge allows water to run over into an overflow area, so it looks like a waterfall from the street.

This is looking towards the front door of the house. The floor is slate, and it runs all throughout the whole house, even into the master bedroom, bathroom and outdoor shower. Yes, that's right, I said OUTDOOR shower! The bed with the white coverlet on it is one of the spare bedrooms; the other is on the left, by where the wooden steps are. Both bedrooms are up on wood floors, whereas the master bedroom has the slate floor.

Here's the kitchen, with a stainless steel refrigerator. The microwave oven is below the counter on the island. So roomy and spacious. From what I'm told, one of the ladies that owns the house loves to cook, so of course this kitchen is a dream for her, lol

Those are all the pictures of the house that my sister sent to me. I'm hoping I can get more in a couple months when she goes back. I know she has more than this on the computer there, lol.

Next I'll try to find pictures of all the colorful birds I saw there!

You wanted pictures? Ok, here's a start on some pictures.

This is the Fair Wind II, the pontoon boat we were on for the snorkel cruise.

This is the crater at Mt. Kilauea, you can see the active steam coming up from the crater, indicating the heat only 1-3 miles below the surface.

Here's the lava tube we walked through. It is about 500 years old, and the only way to get to it is to walk down the steps and incline to the bottom of a rainforest.

This is my Aunt Val, standing next to a sign warning visitors not to feed the Nene, the Hawaiian goose. Interestingly enough, during my whole week there, I didn't see one single goose.

My sister Sue and myself at the crater of Kilauea, with the steam vents behind us.

CHICAGO BEARS WIN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP !!!!

The Chicago Bears beat New Orleans 39-14 at snowy Soldier Field, earning the right to play the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI Feb 4, 2007 in Miami, Florida!

Chicago Bears Fight Song!

Bear down, Chicago Bears,
Make every play clear the way to victory.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
Put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.
We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation,
With your T-formation.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
And let them know why you're wearing the crown.
You're the pride and joy of Illinois,
Chicago Bears, bear down.

Yesterday was rainy and dreary. We made the best of it though. We went to the crater of Kilauea (kill-a-way-a) and saw steam vents of sulphuric gas all around the rim and basin of the crater. We walked through a Lava Tube, in the middle of a rain forest. A Lava Tube is a cave created by lava that you can walk through. The one we walked through, ran through was more like it, was about 500 years old. It was pouring rain while we were at the lava tube, we had no umbrellas and no rain gear. We looked like drowned rats when we we came out, lmao.

There was no active lava flows where we were at, that was all down by the ocean. We didn't have enough time to go see that, as it's best viewed at night. We were a good two hours from my sister's house, and wanted to get home around supper time. I did take some interesting pictures of the steam vents and of us (my sister, aunt and me) at the steam vents.

Driving to the volcano, we took the southern road around the bottom of the island, past lush greenery. Coming back home, we took the northern route, a few more miles, but less traffic, so also about two hours. We had the ocean on our right, and we'd pass over what they call gulches, but they were HUGE gulches, to the left were these awesome waterfalls. I wish we'd had a place to stop so I could take pictures. Words alone cannot express the beauty I saw. There were also massive grasslands with pasture after pasture of cows. I'm told there's a huge ranch on that part of the island that raises all the beef. It felt almost like home seeing all the green grass and cows, lmao.

The last part of the drive was through what feels like the middle of nowhere. Only fields to the left, fields to the right, no other cars on the road, no lights. There are no houses anywhere. The remoteness of it was eery, almost. But still such an interesting part of the island itself.

Today has been cool and rainy, so we're going to go and try to do a little shopping indoors out of the rain. I think we had enough of the rain yesterday. Aloha!

Yesterday afternoon we went snorkeling down at the beach. There's a little inlet where the water is calmer, it's not very deep, and there are lots of fish to see. They were EVERYWHERE, and SO beautiful. All different colors, yellow, and blue, and green, spotted, striped. At one point there were so many of them, I was afraid to put my feet down to get my bearings. They wouldn't let me touch them, but they would still come very close, sometimes brushing my leg, or staring at me with their mouth half open. Almost like they wanted to take a bite out of me. LMAO! Don't worry, they don't bite, I won't come home with some fish disease.

There was also one lone sea turtle in some very shallow water that some people were standing around watching. I walked over to look at it, but didn't want to disturb it too much, so I walked back over to where the water was a little deeper so I could look at the fish. The water wasn't as warm as I thought it would be, less than 80F, but once I was in it, I adjusted to it and it didn't feel cold. We were there for maybe 45 minutes, although I probably could have stayed for several hours.

There's also a chicken that wanders around by my sister's house. This morning between 7 and 7:30, it decided it wanted to try to be a rooster. It was a strange sort of incomplete crowing noise. This went on for about 15 minutes, then it went away. Then my sister's husband was up and outside, so I decided to get up also. My aunt is arriving today about 12:30pm, it will be nice to see her and share this wonderful experience with her.

Aloha!

Here I am in lush, beautiful Hawaii, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, looking out over the pacific ocean! OMG, it is GORGEOUS here! My sister's house has an outdoor shower, with a wall around it (of course) so no one can see you. I want one at home now, lmao. I'm waiting for my sister to come home from playing golf at the club. I think this afternoon we're going to go snorkeling! We had a little bit of rain last evening at the restaurant. I arrived at about 4:30pm Hawaii time; overall, about 10-1/2 hours travel time from when I left Chicago. Even napping on the plane, I was tired and HUNGRY when I arrived in Kona. All we got to eat on the plane was "food for purchase." WELL, I'm not gonna pay for my food on the airplane, so I brought a PB sandwich with me. I should have brought two, lmao.

When we stopped in Maui, I disembarked, bought a shotglass, then got back on with everyone else. It was nice to get up and stretch my legs a bit. Then the last part of the trip, to Kona, was about 30 minutes. Flying over the islands, looking down on the lush greenery, was breathtaking. After a few hours of nothing but water, it was very nice to see land again, lmao.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, to bore you all to death with, lmao. I'm going to go back outside on the patio, read the paper, enjoy the sunshine, and look out at the ocean! Aloha!

Here's a picture I received in a Christmas card the other day. It's of my nephew Doug's family. Top left is his daughter Alycia, the boy waving in the bike helmet is his son Aaron, as is the picture in the top right. In the middle is my nephew Doug on his unicycle that he received this year for his 40th birthday. To the left of that is his wife Margie, below her is their son Aaron again. To the right of the unicycle picture is their daughter Alycia again, my nephew Doug and below him in the lower right corner is Margie.

It's been a few years since I've been out to California to see them. Aaron has Muscular Dystrophy, and the last time I saw him he was still walking on his own. Now he can't walk or even stand on his own anymore. He has a couple scooters he uses at school and home. He's 13 and I'm sure still has a lot of spirit and humor to share with everyone.

Alycia is 16, taking both high school and junior college classes. When she graduates high school, she'll be a sophomore in college. I'm told she's looking at a private art school in San Francisco. I'm so proud of her, as I'm sure her parents are.

With the upcoming wedding in March of Doug's younger brother, I'm looking forward to seeing the whole family next spring.

This is an article submitted to a 1999 Louisville Sentinel contest to find out who had the wildest Christmas dinners. This won first prize.


Christmas With Louise

As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty.

One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Wal-Mart. I had to go to an adult bookstore downtown.

If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, "What does this do? You're kidding me! Who would buy that?" Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section.

I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour.

Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love Dolls come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for Lovable Louise. She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination.

On Christmas Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life.

My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours. Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went home , and giggled for a couple of hours.

The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more.

We all agreed that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner.

My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. "What the hell is that?" she asked.

My brother quickly explained, "It's a doll."

"Who would play with something like that?" Granny snapped.

I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut.

"Where are her clothes?" Granny continued.

"Boy, that turkey sure smells nice Gran" Jay said, to steer her into the dining room.

But Granny was relentless. "Why doesn't she have any teeth?"

Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, "Hang on Granny, hang on!"

My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, "Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace?"

I told him she was Jay's friend.

A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home .

The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise like my father in the bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa.

The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants.

Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car.

It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember.

Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh.

Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health

Ok, a week ago or so, I received an email from a friend. You know the ones...20 questions, all to be answered and sent out to all your friends so they learn new stuff about you. Well this one was about Christmas traditions, etc. I answered it, and sent it out. I got some very nice responses, some never responded, and then there was THIS response. (I've removed names to protect the guilty)

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? Is the eggnog loaded? Meaning does it include whiskey? No. hot chocolate then. With lots of those mini can never seem to catch them in your mouth before they melt marshmallows.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Do I look like Santa Clause? How should I know what he does? I do know that he seems to miss my house every year though. Guess it has to do with not having a chimney.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? WHEN we decorate the outside of the house, we use colored lights. But we haven't done that in a couple of years. Hubby now threatens to make me do it. and I am NOT climbing my fat ass up on the roof. Not even for Santa.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. That gives hubby more incentive to try to kiss me. We wouldn't want that, now would we?

5. When do you put your decorations up? Please see question number 10 for my Scrooge reference.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? The big ole dried out turkey that Gramma "slow" roasts in the oven from midnight 'til noon. Thank God for gravy!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I was never a child. I was born infinitely wise. Okay even *I* can't say that with a straight face.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you MEAN truth? Santa's really a secret Russian spy who infiltrates US homes by cooking up some wild scheme about dropping presents off through people's chimneys that are actually small cameras and listening devices? I've known that for years now.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. We begged Mom and always refused.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We're related to Scrooge at my house. To put up decorations means that one has actually put up a tree. In the last seven years that hubby and I have lived together we've not done that. so there's no need for decorations on it, now is there?

11. Snow? Yes PLEASE!! I would LOVE to see it snow in Florida. It'd be funny to see about a foot of it just pile up. *I* know how to drive in snow.

12. Can you ice skate? Yeah, on my ass.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Disclaimer: before you read this answer, please finish chewing and/or swallowing any food or drink like substance. Thank you. My favorite Christmas gift came from two of the best friends a girl could ask for. I was 21 and involved in a long distance relationship, so. well. I wasn't getting "any" on a regular basis. These two caring friends thought they would help rectify this problem. We threw a party and exchanged gifts. First I would like to point out that I purchased tasteful gifts for these friends. I was an innocent victim. My Christmas gift, ladies and gentlemen (drum roll please) an 8-inch cyber skin "feels like the real thing" jelly penis. Top that Santa!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? To stay as FAR away from malls as I possibly can. A person can lose themselves (or sell themselves, depending on the person, I guess) in a place like that.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Whipped cream. It's delicious, has a nutritional value, and can be served on a variety of desserts. not to mention body parts.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Gathering at Gramma's three hours before food and/or presents were ready to be dug into. Sitting there, listening to the constant bickering of my family. And waiting for the inevitable irritability of someone storming out, disclaiming that they don't know just WHAT the heck crawled up so and so's ass. but they're never coming back to this house EVER again. Ten minutes later the phone rings with the now cooled off individual calling to apologize and asking if they can come back. Aahh. the joy of family for the holidays!

17. What tops your tree? Let me tell you a story. if I had a tree, my cat would knock it over. Why? Because he's a damned heathen, that's why. So if I had a tree. and after continuously picking it up and redecorating it, I would have to say the cat. He would be my angel. Okay so now that I think about it. I wonder if he'd light up.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? That's a loaded question. I thought this was a nice, innocent Christmas quiz! Oh, you mean GIFTS! Right. Got it. Moving on.

19.What is your favorite Christmas Song? I like it when they're over, does that count?

20. Candy Canes yum or yuck? Oh I love month old candy that's been hanging on someone's Christmas tree. I particularly like the ones where half the plastic has "melted" off and have been exposed to the air and the dog licking them for the last week. Those are the BEST!

I GOT A PACKAGE WAITING AT THE POST OFFICE FOR ME!!!!!!!!

IT'S FROM CANADA, WONDER WHO IT'S FROM??????

/GIGGLE

Well, after that first adventure flying, do you think I was eager to do it again a week later? Nope, me either. This flight to Charlotte was earlier than the flight to Indianapolis. It was scheduled for 6:35AM, which means I was supposed to be at the airport at 5:30, I had to leave home at 4:45, I had to get up at 4:00AM. Me?? Get up at 4:00AM?? Kerry maybe...but ME????? Actually, it was easier than I expected it to be, lol.

Amazingly enough, our flight took off on time! Everything went well at the warehouse, counting the coils to make sure our records matched what the warehouse said was there, and was actually there. I got back to the airport in Charlotte in PLENTY of time to make my flight. In fact, I was so early, my flight wasn't even listed on the departure board yet. I didn't even know what terminal to go to. So, I wandered up and down the closest one, and by the time I returned to the departure board, my flight was listed. Lo and behold, my flight was scheduled to leave from a gate in the terminal I was at. Since I still had at least an hour to kill, I walked to a bookstore, bought a magazine and read through that. I returned to the gate and made myself comfortable.

As I sat there, I noticed the gate next to ours also had a flight coming to Chicago, leaving 30 minutes earlier. To back things up a bit, earlier in the day, I was talking to my boss on the phone and he told me my flight would probably be delayed coming home due to fog and a low ceiling. As I sat there at my gate, I began to wonder just how delayed this flight might be. The gate attendant came on the speaker to announce that the 3:33 flight leaving from the gate next to us, was not going to start boarding until 3:30, and that once boarded, the plane was going to pull back from the gate and the plane would be parked for an hour due to delays in Chicago. At that time, she had no idea how long the 4:00 flight (mine) would be delayed, but if any of us wanted to get on the earlier flight, there was still room. I figured with the delays, I might as well take a chance and hope to get home quicker.

I got re-booked onto the earlier flight, with a seat assignment of 20A. Then I went back to the bookstore and bought a book to read during our hour delay on the plane. Turns out, when we started boarding that row 20 was the next to the last row. When I got to the back of the plane, the flight attendant back there, suggested I wait to see what might be available closer to the front, since the flight was not full. There were also two other people standing back there waiting for better seats. Once everyone was boarded, she walked towards the front, then motioned us forward, and I ended up in row 5 (second row back after first class) in an aisle seat. Can't get much better than that! The doors were closed, we backed away from the gate, we parked, and I started reading to pass the time. It was a romance novel, three stories in one book, all having to do with NASCAR, one of my favorite things, lol. I finished the first story only minutes before we were able to start taxiing out.

After we took off, I reclined my seat back and snoozed almost the whole trip home. If my original flight had been on time, I was supposed to land at 5:30PM. After switching to the earlier flight, plus the hour delay, I ended up landing about 6:20PM. As I walked towards baggage to take the stairs down to the parking level, I was curious about how delayed my original flight was. Turns out it was 30 minutes out, so I did better by booking the earlier flight, despite the hour wait on the plane. Again, a long day, up at 4AM home at 7:10PM.

I hope my flight to Hawaii in January doesn't have any delays, lol.

Wow, it's been over a week since I've posted anything here. I guess I wasn't feeling up to posting anything, or I didn't have the time. So here I sit on a gray and dingy Saturday afternoon, with some time to kill (now that I've finally done the NTT playlist and sent it to Kerry.) So I guess it's a good time to get everyone caught up on the last couple weeks or so of my life. Beware, it may not be nearly as interesting as you might think.

First, despite things being generally slow at work due to the holidays and the coming end of the year, I seem to be constantly busy if not swamped. It doesn't help that in December so far, I have not been in the office for more than two days at a time. I ended up scheduling every Friday in December as a vacation day. Plus on the 5th I took a day trip to Indianapolis to see a customer. Then on the 12th, I took another day trip to Charlotte to do physical inventory at a warehouse. Both trips were eventful.

The trip to Indianapolis is about 30 minutes actual air time, but about an hour total, counting the time to taxi on and off the runways. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:05AM and arrive at 10:00AM or so (one hour flight plus one hour time change.) At 8:00AM they announced a delay until 8:20. Then they told us we were switching gates. Fortunately, the new gate was only two or three down from where we were at. Then at 8:20 they delayed us again until 8:40. Then at 8:45, they delayed us until 9:00. With all these delays, they never once told us what was causing the delay, which I think added to the frustration. Finally about 9:00AM we started boarding. It was a small plane, only three seats in each row; One on your right as you got on the plane, and two on the left. I was sitting in a single seat on the right, in row 8 or so. Since I'd been up since 5:00AM, all I wanted to do was sleep. I got comfortable and closed my eyes for a snooze.

Very quickly, my legs got very cold. So cold that I was shivering, even with my coat still on. Finally, the flight attendants closed up the plane and the captain came on the intercom to introduce himself and explain what was going on. He told us that the plane had been having some "on board power" issues. They had tried to get power in the air, and that didn't work. Then they tried to get power from the ground; that didn't work either. They thought we might have to switch planes, but they were able to get it fixed. In the meantime, they had already taken some luggage and started moving it over to another plane thinking that we'd switch planes. When we didn't, we had to wait for the luggage to come back. By the time we took off, it was almost 10:00AM. As I mentioned above, the flight to Indianapolis is quick, only about 30 minutes actual air time, but by the time I landed in Indianapolis, it was 11:30AM. That messed up the entire day, because the customer I went to go visit is about an hour and a half drive east of Indianapolis. As soon as we landed and could use our cell phones, I called my salesman who was waiting for me. He called the customer to let her know I had just arrived and we were running late. She had a meeting to be at, about the time we would have gotten there. So instead of going to see her first, I called the warehouse where we store her material for her, and asked if it was ok for us to stop by then, instead of later that afternoon. Fortunately, that was fine with them, and it gave me an opportunity to meet some people that I'd only talked to on the phone. And, we were lucky enough to be there when the driver was loading up his truck to deliver more material to the customer, so I got to meet him too.

After spending about 45 minutes there, we left to drive the 90 minutes to the customer. The meeting went well, we just went over her usage, and what we have on order to determine where we wanted to order more so as not to run out. I had a 6:05PM flight back to Chicago, arriving at 6:10. Remember, an hour time difference, going backwards, so it was a 55 minute flight, minus the hour time change. So it feels like 5 minutes, lol. I got to the airport in plenty of time, the flight started boarding on time, we pulled back from the gate, taxied out to the runway, and just as we were ready to turn the corner and take off, Air Traffic Control stops us. Initially, all we were told was that ATC had called a stop to all traffic in and out of Chicago O'Hare, and we would be sitting there for an hour and 20 minutes. You can imagine the collective groan that went through the entire cabin. After about 10 minutes, the pilot came back on the speaker. Apparently, O'Hare Airport had decided to "switch runways", whatever that means, and that he was trying to see if we could take off earlier, instead of sitting there for an hour and (now) 10 minutes. He had already killed the engines, and allowed us to turn our cell phones on. Everyone was making calls advising whoever that the flight was going to be late. About 10 minutes later, the pilot came on the speaker again, and announced we had been cleared for takeoff, and for everyone to turn off the cell phones and buckle the seat belts. He started up the engines, we turned the corner, and ZOOM! We took off. I did go to sleep on that leg of the trip also, as I usually do on most airplane flights. As we started approaching O'Hare, I thought our approach was odd. I can't really explain it, other than it felt like we were moving too slow, or too high for how close we were, something... I could see the darkness of where Lake Michigan was off to our right, and I could see the lights of the streets and houses off to our left. Just as I was thinking it was my imagination, we turned to the right, out over the lake. We ended up in a holding pattern for about 30 minutes over Lake Michigan. By the time I got to my car it was 7:10, and it was 7:45 or so when I arrived home. I was just glad to be home!

More to come, later!

Your Life is 37% Perfect

So your life isn't exactly perfect, but it's not horrible either. Things are fairly bad at times... at least they're not likely to get much worse!

How Perfect is Your Life?

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Will the Christmas shopping ever be done? I'm one step closer! I found some things I think Kerry will really like, so I'll get those wrapped maybe Thursday night and mailed on Saturday. Yes, we have mail delivery and open post offices on Saturdays, lmao. The "other" item I bought that will be too late to get there for Christmas can just wait till next year. One of the items I bought was found sort of by accident. I was actually looking for something a little different, and while I was at that store, I thought I'd pick up something I still needed to get for a family member. While I was looking for that, I didn't see what I really wanted to get for Kerry, but then saw something else that I think she'll like just as much if not more. Confused yet? LMAO

So, while making that purchase, I got a discount coupon for the bookstore in the mall, and decided to look there for the book I needed to get for my adopted mom. They had it, and I got 15% off. Not bad! I was still walking around the mall, my feet were killing me, I was about ready to leave, when I passed this small kiosk selling stuff (don't all kiosks at the mall sell stuff?) Anyway, I stopped to look at what they were selling, considered maybe buying one for Kerry, and the guy really got me convinced of the benefits of it. I was trying to just buy one part of it, but then he offered me a deal ($15 off) the other item I wasn't going to buy, so of course, I had to buy it too! So Kerry gets both, lmao. And because I bought the second item, the first item wa s free! Really confused yet? Bwahahahahahaha

A friend called me tonight, asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her tomorrow night. I haven't seen her since the weekend before Halloween, so figured I better take this chance to see her. Who knows when I'll see her again. After some discussion about what movies we've already seen, which ones we don't want to see, and which ones we can't go see because we'll probably go see them with other people, we narrowed it down to The Santa Clause 3 and Deck The Halls. I would rather see The Santa Clause 3, I thought the first two were very cute, and can't wait to see this one with Santa battling Jack Frost. Should be funny and entertaining.

Well, it's after 10 now, I should get to bed. Didn't sleep well last night, and it didn't help that the guy living upstairs from me decided to ask an elephant to teach him to tap dance at 2:30am. They tap danced across the bedroom floor directly above my bedroom, out into the living room, got their feet tangled up and fell down. Loudly! At 2:30 in the morning! I wasn't sleeping well to begin with, and then to be woken up by that? *mumbles to myself about inconsiderate young men*

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over with, and my leftover turkey is almost gone, I have started focusing on Christmas. That one joyful day of the year that is preceded by a month of more stress than I normally like to deal with. There's Christmas cards, decorating, buying presents, wrapping the presents, shipping the presents, plus all the normal everyday stuff that still has to be done (work, eating, sleeping, paying bills, etc.)

I paid bills tonight, and I made a few purchases online, I'm only worried about one, though. Kerry's gift says the estimated delivery day to me is the 18th, which is too late to try to get to her by Christmas. I thought maybe I'd have it mailed directly to her...the website said states/provinces are required for shipments to the U.S. and Canada, but when I went to change countries, it only lists the U.S. So I guess I can't ship it directly to Canada. I really want her to have her present by Christmas, especially since last year my gift didn't get there in time. Yeah, I procrastinate for just about everything. Thought I was getting a head start this year, doing this before December 1, and well it didn't help me, lol. Then I had another idea as I was perusing another magazine, checked that item out, and it's out of stock too! So tomorrow night after work, I have to stop by a book store to pick up a present for someone, and the book store is by the mall, so I'll just zip over there and wander around, hoping I find something, lol. One way or another, I'll find something to send her, even if it's just a box of burned cd's! LMAO

So Kerry and Tori are having fun setting up their new blogs in beta. I don't think I'll have any time to do more with mine than what you see here, not in December, and probably not in January, since I'll be off the mainland for a week. That will be my big rest after the hectic pace of December, lol.

I had a nice five day weekend. Went shopping on Wednesday, then rested the rest of the days. Mostly I was a lazy bum, never even got dressed on Sunday, lol. But I didn't sleep that well Saturday and Sunday nights, so I wasn't ready to get up for work this morning. I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on CBS last night, Candles on Bay Street. Those movies make me cry EVERY time! But I love them just the same. And I love the Hallmark commercials, but they really need to make new ones, they're all a few years old now.

Happy Thanksgiving to the residents of the United States who are reading this. To everyone else, I'll eat a piece of turkey and a bite of stuffing for you, lol.

Sorry I haven't been posting anything lately. I guess I feel my life is pretty boring right now, and I have nothing to talk about. I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed, I get up, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed...and the circle continues. Work is ok, nothing really interesting there to report. My love life sucks, like always. My personal life is as boring as always. I chat some nights during the week, I stream on Fridays, some weekends I go see a movie. I watch football on some Sundays and Mondays.

Ya'll know I'm going to Hawaii in January, I've already mentioned that. I did get a "save the date" note in a bottle from a nephew, he's getting married for the second time in March. So it looks like I'll be going to California then.

Wednesday I'm taking the day off work to get a lot of my Christmas shopping done. Then after Thanksgiving, I need to work on Christmas cards and wrapping presents so I'm not rushing on Christmas Eve to get everything done.

That's about it for now. Hugs!

Your Power Color Is Lime Green

At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: "What else do I need in my life?"

What's Your Power Color?