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I’m tired. I need to take a nap before we dazzle at our appointed parties tonight. I tried looking for new shoes again today but everything has been picked through. When are the stores going to replenish their stock? Is this really going to require me taking a trip to Chicago just to buy new shoes?

I’m getting a camera for my birthday. Now normally, I don’t want anything for that particular event. Why should anyone but myself or my mother care about when I was born? However, I find it’s a convenient excuse to get something I have wanted for some time.

Last night the DH and I went on a impromptu dinner date at TGIF — we used a gift card that he got for Christmas from work, so our steak dinners, complete with coffee and dessert was 50% off! What a deal! Then we came home and spent some quality time together playing Baldur’s Gate — I have been saying it wrong. This is Baldur’s Gate NOT Champions of Norath. Though, if you play either game you know how similiar they are.

Today I have spent most of the day reading. I wish I had a direwolf, but I guess Pluto will just have to do.

Okay. Gotta sneak in a real nap before I have to get ready.

Happy New Year everyone!

Man, you start writing more frequently and people come to expect it. Heh.

Today the weather outside is truly frightful! I mean seriously, dark grey and cold, and gloomy. It’s just awful. Walking home in it depressed me. At least it waited for that weird sleet/snow thing to start after I walked in the door. I hope tomorrow isn’t as tenebrous as today.

Nothing much to report. Lots of hanging out with the Hilbird — exchance of gifts on Wednesday and a little shopping on Thursday. I am now the proud owner of an exclusive, one of a kind skirt. It’s made out of my favorite wintertime material – fleece!

I should really do the dishes. They haven’t been done for awhile.

I am the only one here today. I think. I mean it’s one hour into it and I am fairly certain that trend is going to continue all day. Actually, I might be wrong — I think the head honcho might come in today, but she usually comes in later, that still means I got about an hour.

Not that I need the hour to do anything mind you, no one is posting anything juicy — with a few exceptions. I remember that I had this kind of time at Northwestern. Man did I write there — I did all kinds of things, that was awesome. It’s amazing how much more you write when you are at work then when you are left to your own devices.

I am eating popcorn. You know from those big tins? I don’t know why they even put butter flavor in there — no one ever eats it. Everyone knows the best one is the caramel, followed by the cheese. My Mom used to get one every year when I was kid. We always ate the whole thing. Now if I get one, it rots and becomes one big pile of mixed soggy corn that gets regulated into the basement until I have the gumption to clean it out and recyle the tin.

Okay, what is the fourth day of Christmas? One beer, two turtlenecks, three french toast….what is the fourth? Jessie? I *know* you know it. Spill it.

So I started rereading A Game of Thrones — and this whole rereading thing isn’t bad at all! I don’t remember everything like I thought I would. I mean, the story is still good and when I get to pivotal points I vaguely remember something that is about to happen. It’s cool! Of course, it has also been like four years since I last read it.

Since I cleaned the whole freaking house yesterday, it was nice to retire to the bed to read and drink a glass of wine. I even got the old man radio and plugged it in, turning it to a classical station. Just like in high school! I used to have the radio on as background noise 24/7. I couldn’t sleep, read or stare into space without it. It was a little static-y but I fixed that with a piece of tinfoil. In fact, I didn’t stop listening to the radio to sleep until I met Tim. He couldn’t stand to have noise — that took some adjusting too. But now, I need absolute silence to sleep, so much so that I have to wear earplugs if the dog is breathing too loud. The reason I started wearing them was because Tim snored, but that has really been reduced since he lost weight, started working out, quit smoking and quite drinking.

But habits are hard to break.

I am also listening to my new Franz Fernidad CD at work. It’s quite good, I am on my second round right now. Track 5: Auf Achse is my favorite right now.

I kind of wish I was in europe or travelling right now. After April when Bekah and Greg go back, we will have room and board for France visiting, if we wish. We will go — I mean, I never pass up an offer of free room and board.

—- Dang — she who shall not be named has arrived and said that the head honcho is coming in today. I guess that was the end of that bubble. And since she has made herself known she has come three times — each time asking if I know how to tap into my coworkers computer or open mail, etc and bemoaning the possiblity of a missed opportunity. Well damn, that is what you get for asking somone else to do a mass email that you don’t want to do. HA!

Anyway, I guess I don’t really have a too lot to say. That didn’t stop me from writing a bunch of crap though.

Things I would like to do today:

1. Put all laundry away.
2. Organize clothes that I don’t want anymore, into a pile so that I can practice sewing/tailer to try and make into something I DO want.
3. Make the bed.
4. Wipe the bathroom counter.
5. Possibly get dressed.
6. Brush my hair.
7. Update blogger.
8. Check out my other internet haunts.
9. Reply to any emails.
10. Send a birthday card to Callie.
11. Find the freebee promotional calendars that I got from work two months ago for 2006.
12. Send a thank you card for my wireless remote control for the PS2 I got from brother in law Mark.
13. Make a leftover Boxing Day ham sandwich for lunch.
14. Maybe get together with Hilary.
15. Think about getting coffee, cereal and fruit from Woodmans.
16. Vacuum the living room floor.17. Consider sweeping the kitchen floor.
18. Work on my puzzle a bit.
19. Put games we never ended up playing yesterday away.
20. Start a letter to someone — probably Gale. I haven’t heard from her in almost 6 months– always a sign in penpalworld that something has happened.
21. Do the dishes.
22. Write in my paper journal all those deep dark thoughts I don’t want anyone to know I have.
23. Water the plants.

I had a dream last night I was in Japan vising Laima and Oliver. They both told me that when I registered with a hotel that I would need to provide the name of my husband — otherwise they wouldn’t accept me. I was excited to be there and eager to explore — all the japanese I saw moved slowly and wore outrageous clothing.

–EDIT—Updated at 11:04

Bonus items:

1. Put toliet paper away.
2. Put on make up!
3. Cleaned up makeup drawer.
4. Picked up garbage laying around on surfaces.

—Final Update for the day: 7:40 PM —–

5. Took the dog for a walk.
6. Found all the George RR Martin books so I can read them over before reading my new book — this is big. I have only ever reread one book in my life — the Secret of Nimh. Also, I have two copies of Clash of Kings — I can only assume that Sarah gave me Dave’s extra…did you?
7. Made dinner – chips and salsa, sausage and a baked potato.
8. Took a nap.
9. Washed that make up off my face and put my glasses back on — the nap made my contacts gummy.
10. Checked the mail and read two letters and a card.
11. Vacuumed the office.
12. Put my puzzle away for now — I didn’t want the card table where it was anymore.
13. Played Caleb’s Christmas present for awhile.
14. Picked up all the mail tidbits and paper things and put them on my desk.
15. Cleaned off Tim’s desk.

Wow, was that a cheap move or what?!

Yesterday was great! It was like perfect day. We got up, made some cinnamon rolls and coffee — took turns opening our presents, and then played with them. We played Star Wars until we pretty much beat it. Then moved into Champions and tried that — I suggested difficult .. and man was it difficult. We weren’t getting anywhere fast, so we started over.

Then there was the long nap. Making Christmas dinner — that we ate by candlelight (okay and overhead light) in the kitchen with medieval type music playing in the background. I felt like a queen! The cornish hen was perfect, it was so tender it fell off the bones…the stuffed tomatos however had too much basil in them. We didn’t actually get to try the sweet potato casserole because we decided to have it be our item to bring today to celebrate boxing day in Milwaukee.

Speaking of which I need to finish wrapping the presents for that.

So, DH was great — I got the 3rd Lord of the Rings DVD, the new George RR Martin book, a CD: Franz Fernindad, a circular paper cutter, two medium size stamps (cat and butterfly), two video games and the best one….the seven piece stainless steel set of pots and pans! Oh they are SO shiny! I have grown to hate teflon over the past two years.

After dinner we played Runebound: The Isle of Dread (one of DH’s presents) until 1:00 in the AM and then went to bed.

Alright, I should go and get ready and finish doing the things I need to be doing: wrap presents, arrange cookies on a cookie tray, maybe take a shower, definitely get dressed and make Tim try on the pair of pants I bought him.

ON a side note…I am going to be doing some serious workouts after tonight.

Oh and James…when are you replacing your website with a site that works?

Merry Christmas

Okay okay, so I might have been wrong. I keep forgetting that I have the newer version of Tim. Tim 2.0 Dang. We didn’t go shopping, but we did go over and visit the inlaws for a bit and deliver cookies. Did I mention that I delivered cookies to the neighbors yesterday, and one of them blasted me with Reiki hoodoo a few times? I was supposed to feel a breeze. When I told Tim later he made the magic motion and blew on me. Ha ha.

Nah, I think there might be something to that, but standing in their front porch and being suprised with the force…well that’s something I can’t agree to right away. I mean, I could have been standing there and she could have turned into a gremlin and I would have just smiled and nodded, maybe humming the gremlin theme song in my head.

Uh anyway. Tim, Second Edition — gave me two of my presents last night. He said it was because he didn’t want to wrap them, but we all know it was so that he could play them. So last night and today we spent most of the day playing Star Wars Battlefields. The other game is the Champions of Norath Dark Alliance…apparently we played the sequel but we never played the orginal.

So playing vids all day rocks! We also managed to go out and get his present and food for tomorrow. Yes, in less than 24 hours we shall be dining on sumptious cornish hens, stuffed tomatoes and sweet potato casserole and for dessert? A coconut creme pie. How how delicious! I even bought cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning to go with our coffee while we open presents.

I am kind of excited to open presents with just Tim. I haven’t done that one yet.

The biggest thing raining on my parade today, is that I have a headache again. Ugh. I hates it. I hope it goes away for good tomorrow. That would be a nice Christmas present. It’s the second one this week. I took a three hour nap to get rid of it, but I am thinking that an early bed time might be just the thing to knock it down? Hm. I don’t know. At least I wouldn’t feel it anymore.

Have I ever mentioned how I like robotic voices?

Damnit. It’s almost 7 and Tim still isn’t home yet. He was going to do some shopping after work. But you know what that means…that means he is going to get home in a crappy mood and not want to do anything.

I wanted to go and get his stupid gift, and then drop off cookies at Sarah and Lukes and maybe visit for awhile. This is one of those special “gifts” of marriage — the one where you know exactly what is going to happen.

I can’t say I am fan of it. Usually because when I foresee the future in situations like these, they turn out to be exactly correct and I am mad. So, if you think about it, because I can see how it’s all going to play out and am getting miffed about it right now — that means EXTRA angry/disappointed/miffed time on top of having it actually happen!

Plus, we have pretty much no food in this house, so if we don’t decide what we are going to eat for Christmas — we are going to be eating nuthing. Well, maybe that package of ramen. But if you know me, then you know I hate ramen. That means that I have to go to Woodmans though. But before I can even think about that, I’ll need a list because if I don’t have a list and an overtired, grumpy darling DOES decide he wants to do something other than warm this computer seat — then I’ll catch hell for it by not being prepared. Okay, maybe now I want a stupid license — but only for tonight.

Oh please *rolls eyes* — perhaps it was everyday except Thursday. Please note however, that I did try to post something last night, but the resident troll was well established in his spot and hollered at me for even THINKING about wanting to use the computer. Then I said “FINE! I’m going to bed.” And he gurgled back (my amazing troll decipering) “GOOD! You have been annoying me anyway!”

So I went to the john, read an article, took out my eyes and then headed to bed. At which point the Troll turned into my darling and he said “I’m sorry, you can have the computer now.” And now I was a little goblinly and replied “No, I don’t want it. I am going to bed.”

Thus, no Thursday post. But I can post TWICE today. That will make up for it, right? As long as there are 7 posts in a weeks time then I am good.

Yesterday I spent most of the day baking, decorating cookies and making gift tins/plastic containers for friends and family. I also paid some bills and chatted a bit with Karen and Hilary. However, I had a headache leftover from the night before that I couldn’t shake. I had taken some excedrine in the am — but by noon it was gone. THen I shook it up a bit and took some Ibuprophen and that worked wonders! It’s still gone!

I didn’t have the usual coffee with Hilary because Leta needed to go to the doctor. Instead I took a shower and got dressed. My Mom called me at one point to tell me that she got the package I had sent even though it had the WRONG ZIP CODE! Gah. She went on and on about how wonderful I was and how clever the things were (they were just books, stickers, coloring books…etc — all grown up stuff though). I asked her why she didn’t wait until Christmas to open it, and she said “Oh Frank opened it, I didn’t.”

“Why did he do that?” I asked.
“Because he wanted to know what was inside,” she replied.
“But I told you what it was!” I stated.
“No, you just said paper stuff,” she defended.
“Yeah! And is there anything in that box that isn’t paper? And is there anything in that box that doesn’t have anything to do with paper?” Pause.

“Well, no, I guess not!” she agreed. “I guess I didn’t get your clues.”

Sheesh.

Then at 4:00 we went skating at Vilas Park and met up with Jeremy — Tim’s excoworker and skating buddy. He’s really good! I mean really. We gave him a cool whip container with cookies. I think they are rather cute and kind of regret not indulging in cool whip every month for the past year so that I could have more.

After a nice little workout, we came home and there was a message from Janet saying to call her back. I called back and she said that taekwondo classes were cancelled for that night. I told it was okay because I wasn’t going to go, I was just going to drop off some cookies and a xmas card. She said that was sweet.

I didn’t get to buying Tim’s gift after that because we had to drive downtown to meet up with ANOTHER old coworker of Tim’s and have dinner at Frida’s. It was my idea to go there — and I kind of was disappointed with it the second time around. Nothing was the same…the magic was gone! It became boring old mexican fare again. But we did have a good time with Sameer and his friend from CA who is helping him drive there on Sunday or Monday. What we should have done was gone to the Essen Haus because it’s where we all met and really got to know each other. I gave him a cool whip container with a potato salad lid — but it fit! And he liked it. I wonder what he will think of american xmas cookies — probably too sweet.

So that was last night/yesterday. It was a good day.

Work? What? Huh? It’s been that kind of day at “Work.” Lots of story telling — and I got two gifts! One is a basket with a margarita, home made salsa, a little bag of nacho chips, chocolate, coffee and a small bottle of wine. My coworker called the Happy Hour Basket. Cool! Then the head cheese came in and gave me a decorative frame. Now I just gotta get around to putting pictures in them. I would like to get into that more — except I feel so narcissistic when I only put pictures of Tim and I in them.

It’s been a good day. Oh and a big tin of popcorn came in too. So, even better — and my lunch was an egg salad sandwich. I really like those — and it’s such a treat when I get them. By the way, here is how you are supposed to boil eggs.

Method 1: Put cold eggs in water and bring to rolling boil. Turn off and let sit in hot water for 20 min.

Method 2: Put eggs in water and bring to boil — boil for 8-10 minutes.

Apparently the 3 minute egg is for those soft boiled eggs that you put in little egg cups. I have decided I need to put that on my garage sale list of things to look for next year after: sifter and double boiler.

This past weekend Tim and I got recreational hockey skates and took ourselves out to the Vilas lagoon. Vilas and Elver are the only two ice rinks open right now. Since it opened Friday, we have gone ice skating 3 times. I think I like ice skating the best of all the platforms. If I had to rank them: ice skating, roller blading and then quad skating. It’s looking like a winter of ice skating — anyone that wants to join in should let us know. I’ll tell when we go if you want some company.

Bekah and Greg are in town to help SIL Sarah with the baby while she works again (and for the holidays). We saw them only on Sunday when we dropped off the ankle biters. I hope we get together sometime before the Boxing Day celebration next Monday.

I skipped my last yoga class and hung out with Liama instead on Monday. Her basement is the coziest damn thing ever! I can’t wait until she starts craft night at Laima’s.

I did a lot of shopping this past week and got plenty of stuff for friends and family — and a good chunk of stuff for myself. Namely clothes. IT’s been forever since I’ve had decent clothes — I got: two new skirts, one pair of pants, four shirts and three pairs of tights. I have totally had interest in getting dressed again and have renewed that common vow of “trying to look better than a dumpy housewife.”

I finished all my mail type stuff yesterday – man that took all day. So there are a few surprises going out there but mostly just cards. I am terribly inconsistent when it comes to gift giving every year. It flexes — like with birthday’s. Sometimes I remember and do something, other times I remember and decide I don’t want to do anything half assed — and so I wait. I wait until something good comes along. After all, I don’t want to celebrate the life of a friend on one day, but rather any day. Because isn’t every day that they around a good one?

My friend Hilary needs some cheering up. Anyone have any ideas?

I am going to make a goal of writing something every day for a week on here. So be prepared!