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?

You Are a White Flower

A white flower tends to represent purity, simple beauty, and modesty. At times, you are dignified like a magnolia. And at other times, you represent great ecstasy, like a white orchid. And more than you wish, you're a little boastful, like a white hydrangea.

What Color Flower Are You?

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Short post tonight, going to go get ready for bed. Had MORE rain today, when will it stop?? (I know, I know...it'll stop when the snow comes.)

My trip to Hawaii is all settled. I leave on January 5th and return on the 13th. OMG, I can't wait! My sister and aunt are splitting the cost of seven hundred some dollars roundtrip, that is my Christmas present from the two of them. Keeping my fingers that I lost another pound or two when I weigh myself on Saturday. It would be great to be more lightweight when I go over there.

Have a great Friday!

Finally a day without rain! Of course, it's freaking COLD! And we're supposed to get more rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, lol. I'm hardwired, and I got my money back from Best Buy for the wireless router, USB adapter and 50 foot network cable. That was nice seeing a credit go back to my account for 170.00. Then I went to pay my first cable bill, which came in the mail at 257.20. I had complained about the installation charges and part of that had been credited to my account. So I was thinking about 220.00 would still be due. I went to pay online, and it said 257.20 was more than what I owed. Since I hadn't made a payment yet, I was kind of confused. I tried again for a payment of 200.00, again it said it was more than what I owed. Now, it does give you the option of going ahead with the payment, but I couldn't understand how I didn't owe all this money all of a sudden. I tried a new amount, 140.47...the amount just for the cable service from 9/29 to 11/10. Again, it said it was too much, but I didn't want to take any chances so I finished the payment for that amount. Will be interesting to see my next bill and find out why they said I didn't owe anything.

I went out to spend my normal Sunday afternoon with my aunt. She has had a taste for turkey with all the trimmings for about a month now, but never felt up for fixing it. She finally did, so we had a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner today. I didn't do too bad; I didn't over-stuff myself, I stopped when I got full. And I brought some turkey home for lunch tomorrow. After lunch we were supposed to go see The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman. But my aunt was not feeling well at all, so we felt it was best if we didn't go see the movie this weekend. Instead her sister and I drove to a small town west of there called Malta, where there's a farm that also grows apples. They have this little shop where you can purchase all different kinds of apples, you can buy fudge, a donut, apple pies, caramel apples...omg it was so tempting. The only thing I got while I was there was some Amaretto fudge. (winks at StygianMuse)

Last night we played NTT at www.thewolven.com. Kerry hosted and I kept score. Lainie missed another chance to get in my box...sigh! Voodooman won a close game. Most of the artists are ones you would recognize when you hear them, but not the song. And Kerry's hubby even came in and played! I had fun and I hope those who played also had fun.

Going to try to rip a couple cd's before The Amazing Race starts. Not sure if Kerry will pull her nose out of the book in time to watch it with me. Will wait and see.

If your apartment fills with smoke, what do you do?

Trivia question for you. Do you...

A. Open all the windows

B. Open the door to the hallway

C. Both


Under NO circumstance, if there's no fire, do you open the door to the hallway. All that will do is fill the hallway up with smoke, the fire alarm will be triggered, the building will be evacuated in the middle of ER, two firetrucks will arrive, firemen will bring in fans to blow the smoke out of the hallway, and you'll get the honor of standing outside in the cold for 20 minutes.

I thought this song would be appropriate since it rained AGAIN today!


Who'll Stop the Rain by Credence Clearwater Revival

Long as I remember the rain been comin down.
Clouds of mystry pourin confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, tryin to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder, wholl stop the rain.

I went down virginia, seekin shelter from the storm.
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow.
Five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains.
And I wonder, still I wonder wholl stop the rain.

Heard the singers playin, how we cheered for more.
The crowd had rushed together, tryin to keep warm.
Still the rain kept pourin, fallin on my ears.
And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain.

Your 1920's Name is:

Blossom Esperanza

What's" Your 1920's Name?

I thought I'd post the letter written by the Management of my complex, to be given to the technician on Thursday.

Dear Comcast and Affiliates:

This letter is to allow Comcast Technicians and or any of its affiliates to run cable from a room through the common adjoining wall, which shall feed through bushings installed on both sides to make the additional outlets in the adjoining room.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the management office.

Sincerely,
Country Lakes Management


I decided to call the office and speak to Gwen, who I have been dealing with since Saturday. I wanted to make sure they were aware that I was wanting the 2nd bedroom wired, not the first bedroom. To give those of you that have not seen my apartment an idea of what's involved, let me describe my apartment to you. When you enter the door, in front of you is the living room. There is a bedroom to the right and a bedroom to the left. Straight ahead on the opposite wall is the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony. Right next to that, on the left, is the fireplace, which is at an angle (not perpendicular to the sliding glass door.) That wall that the fireplace is part of, is the wall that separates the living room from bedroom number two. The cable coming into my apartment from outside is on that same wall as the sliding glass door. The wall separating the livingroom from bedroom number one is where the tv is, due to the necessity of being close to the cable outlet. Bedroom number two is where the computer is, and therefore the cable would have to be split off (probably outside), run across the balcony and drilled through the bricks outside and into the second bedroom.

Obviously it would be much simpler if I were having the cable going into bedroom number one, they could split the cable off inside, go through the wall, put the outlet there, and it's done. NO, I have to be difficult and want cable in the opposite bedroom from where the cable comes into the apartment, lol. Gwen assured me that it was still no problem, and they should know what to do when wiring the bedroom. If they have any questions about what to do or how to do it, she told me I could call and ask them to page the Service Manager. Apparently, there's some Town Hall meeting they all have to go to, so the leasing office will be closed at 1pm. Just in time for my appointment from Comcast, lol.

Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology - John Tudor

More computer issues! Grrrrrr!! I have been on this wireless cable internet for two weeks. I have streamed three times, not without problems, but I've streamed. Friday night, I go into chat, listen to Kerry stream, get all set up, reboot, come back in, connect to producer, 30 seconds later I get disconnected. I try again...same thing. I go in another room and talk to the owner, stream leader, and tech guy. They have me turn off a bunch of stuff that they feel is blocking me from connecting to the stream server. I try again...disconnected after 30 seconds. The tech guy has me set up to allow ports within a certain range to be accessed from my computer, I try again, doesn't work. I was on the phone TWICE with the stream leader. Nothing is working. After two hours, I give up for the night.

My only options are to see if I can get this room wired for direct connection to the cable and ditch the wireless, or go back to my dsl. Saturday I set the alarm for 9am, call my leasing office, and find out I CAN get this room wired for cable tv/internet. They state all I will probably need is a written letter from them to give to Comcast for permission to drill the holes for the cables. I call Comcast, and now have any appointment for Thursday afternoon between 1pm and 5pm CDT to have this bedroom wired. Saturday night before NTT I advised the stream leader and the site owner of what I'm doing and they both agree that will solve my problem.

So once I have the cable hooked up to my computer, and I am off the router, I should be able to stream again. Man, did I miss streaming Friday night! I hope Best Buy will let me return the router, adapter, and network cable. Although I don't have the original packaging for the cable, it was in that plastic crap that I had to tear to pieces to get the cable out. I would really like to get the $170 back I spent on everything.

So in a few days, I should be good to go, keeping my fingers, legs, toes, eyes...all crossed!

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary.If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not a lot to talk about this weekend. I hosted NTT last night (where was lainie?), with Kerry keeping score. We had a lot of fun, even with all the funny names that came in. A chat name was misspelled, instead of pilem, someone typed it as oilem, and it grew from there. Oilem became Oinkem, which became Boinkem, then of course, pokem, strokem, and chokem all had to come in. It was quite funny as I was running down the list of names in every mic spot, trying to kill time while Kerry was finishing up all the guesses and points. It seemed like everytime I opened the mic, another name came in and got me giggling again, lol. We finally asked all the names to leave, because it just got too confusing trying to keep score. One of the culprits for the names forgot which window she was in and accidentally sent her guess to Kerry using that name instead of her real name. NTT is Saturday nights at www.thewolven.com from 9pm-11pm EDT.

Some good football games were played this weekend, too. My favorite college team, the Iowa Hawkeyes beat up on the Purdue Boilermakers Saturday, 47-10. Today Da Bears beat Buffalo 40-7. Wish I'd been able to see that game. Maybe it will be re-aired again later tonight on cable. Then my boys, Dallas, well they got beat pretty good in a tough divisional game against Philadelphia. It was a close game when I was watching in the first half, but apparently things sort of fell apart in the second half. Oh well! Better luck next week!

Can't mention all this without lamenting about the Leafs losing to the Canadiens. Kerry and I were cheering them on while we tried to host NTT. The Blackhawks also lost Saturday, to Columbus. Chicago actually has a pro hockey team? lmao

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians reading this! Have some turkey and stuffing for me!

They say dreams are the windows of the soul--take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts. Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991

I've had some really strange dreams the last couple of nights. They weren't very involved or long, but they were really really strange. And those of you that know me pretty well are used to my strange dreams.

Monday night I dreamed that I was outside my apartment building, and I noticed going from building to building were a couple of the maintenance guys from my WORK office building. They were carrying these black boxes with handles that were about the size of small shoe box. They would go into one building for a couple minutes, walk back out, then go into the next one for a couple minutes, etc. So I followed the one named Jerry (yes I know his name, no he's not single, lmao) into one of the buildings to see what he was doing. He went up to the second floor, stood in the hallway for a couple minutes, just standing there. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was getting GPS (Global Positioning System) readings for our building so the whole complex could be mapped out.

That was it, that was all of it. Weird huh? The next one is just as strange.

Tuesday night I dreamed I was listening to the local country station, US99, in my bedroom. The morning dj was on, Ray Stevens. Not sure if it was actually morning in my dream, I just know he was on the air at the time. While I'm listening, this guy calls into the station and they put him on the air. He says to Ray, over the air, that he had called up the station for something (not sure what, he didn't say) and he talked to this really nice lady with a pretty voice. Well somehow, without them saying anything, I knew it was my sister. (For those that don't know, I have one full sister who isn't talking to me, and hasn't pretty much for the last 17 years.) You guessed it, it was this sister working at US99. So anyway, Ray Stevens tells this guy that he shouldn't have talked to her, and shouldn't have mentioned her on air, because she works behind the scenes and they weren't supposed to talk about her on the air. They told the guy, whoever he was, that he had to hang up and not call back to her, lmao. And I'm sitting here thinking, in my dream, Wow! I had no idea she worked at US99! LMAO

I will go weeks without remembering any dreams, then all of a sudden I'll have one or two that I remember and make absolutely no sense! Like this week, lmao.

Time to go get ready for bed, and hope for a peaceful nights sleep without any crazy dreams!