Today we searched for two lost dogs in Waupan for 5 hours. We didn’t find any, nor did the score of other volunteers. I hope they get found. They have been missing since December 20th.
Going to the Inferno for a night of Classic Club hits – or so they say. We’ll see. I am completely prepared to bail. Gotta go so we don’t have to pay a cover charge!
Tim’s parent’s were just here to visit and they gave us a 25$ gift card to Borders. I told Tim that is going towards the purchase of an item that will both give us years and years of pleasure — The Joy of Cooking. 
I really need to write my creative assignment for my writing group…it was due on Thursday. I almost did it today except I got into a big long discussion with a coworker — not the good kind. Which sucked…but you know those are her issues, not mine. It did however, reinforce my belief that I can be a real hard ass when I want too.
BUT, I’ll do that tomorrow. For tonight, I’m making some mac and cheese, having a cider and playing some Kingdom Hearts II.
Alll right….I just finished paying bills. I think … what, it’s this month? Or next month that is everyone’s most depressing bill paying time? (although I am sure, for many, that depressing time is EVERY month). I was a little worried…but I had sacrified a lot of things for this month
-paying min on student loan
-working extra to make up days
-not doing tkd or fitness clubs
-sticking to the christmas list and not feeling pressured to buy gifts for the wrong side of the family (though they like to get us stuff even though they have an off year, for example, Tim’s parents are coming over tomorrow…and I have a feeling they are packing gifts…we don’t have anything for them and I am not going to feel guilty that is the case. They know the rules…every other year – so it’s fair to both our sides of the family).
In fact, considering we had to travel to and back from Milwaukee twice, up north, stay in a hotel and visits lots of people, in addition to having a big Christmas party — we did really well. I had to only take $374 from savings and add it to checking…(well, plus an extra 200 for the end of this month + new year’s cushion). That is AWESOME! All of our hard work paid off, and we finished paying for the most expensive month. Now come Jan to June — which historically are frugal months.
Niow that I have done my big duty of the day, I need to next take a shower — clean up a bit in anticipation for the parental visit, shred some potatos for dinner (potato deluxe…a recipe curtesy of my coworker) and play some Kingdom Hearts II. OH, I also have to pack up the two forgotten gifts for my brothers to send out tonight.
Last night Tim played open faced cribbage with me! It’s a game we learned from Kelly and Ben last Friday in Milwaukee. IT’s fun. I want to play it with everyone. I just want to play games with people. Sit around and play cribbage, scrabble, abalone….you know. That is a cozified winter activity.
I also want my dog to knock it off. As I said to Tim in my morning email to him:
Pluto isn’t back to his normal schedule. A whole weekend with the dog sitters has left him utterly spoiled. Now our couch isn’t comfortable enough — he sits down and then gets up suddenly to walk down the hall, come back and consider the couch again. Pacing back and forth. He’s not getting enough attention – constantly following any of us around and expecting more than his usual amount of attention, which is about…what? A couple minutes? He wants a couple of hours. AND where the fuck are all his bisquits? (speaking for pluto)….I don’t know if you noticed, but all but one of his bisquits that I packed for the weekend (a little more than twice the amount of normal) were all gone. He must have averaged at least three treats and a greenie or rawhide a day.
He’s kind of a pain right now.
walking around morosely, giving me those eyes…pacing….standing in odd spots and whining….staring at me. …whining….not laying the hell down….
For real, it’s a HUGE pain. He’s not back to his normal schedule. I know people think you can’t give a dog enough attention, but I beg to differ. You don’t have to live with that dog after the attention surplus has stopped. I do. It sucks.
I’ve been trying to think of some highlights that maybe I didn’t mention before, regarding this past weekend.
–Christmas Eve was awesome. Tim and I spent the ..oh wait I wrote about that.
–Christmas Morning we went over to Mom’s after eating a belguim waffle, orange and pastry for breakfast. Ditto and his fiance (Did I mention that story about how I noticed the ring on her …no? I didn’t? Here it is.
Ditto (aka James) called earlier in the morning to see if we were there. He said he would be over in an hour. An hour later he showed up with his girlfriend. I didn’t think it was any big deal, but Mom and Shane later said that was the first time the girl has ever come into the house. Ever. Usually she sits in the car waiting. It’s debatable whether or not she does this because Ditto asked her too, or she did it on her own accord. The reason (because I know you are asking this in your head) is because Ditto was ashamed of his upbringing/current status of the house and didn’t want anyone to see it. Either because if they did they would associate the state of the house with Ditto, or because he didn’t want them to feel pity for his family or both..anyway, we are all victims of this in one way or another).
She brought goodies with her and stood most of the time. At one point, I was trying to think of small talk to say and looked at her hand. There, on her left hand was a ring the size of texas.
“Are you engaged?” I asked her.
“Yep,” she replied and looked at her hand.
“When?” I managed through my shock.
“August,” she answered and looked to Ditto for confirmation.
“Yeah,” Ditto said. “I told Mom about it then.”
“Mom!” I exclaimed. “Why did you tell me that Ditto got engaged!”
“Well, I didn’t know,” she explained. “He said he wasn’t going to get married until next year.”
“Mom! What do you think “Engaged” means?” I said, quite exasperated.
So…my little brother Ditto is engaged. The wedding is set for sometime next September. I have to figure out what weekend Mark is getting married, and tell Ditto so they don’t get married on the same weekend. That would seriously suck, especially since we already made a committment to go to Mark’s (and Tim is a groomsmen).
After Christmas there, we headed over to Jessie’s place. It was such a good time. They had saved their presents for the kids to open that night, so we got to take part in watching kids open presents! It’s so much fun. Becca, Lucas and Dean are SUCH good kids. I told Tim that I wanted to adopt Becca as a “special adult” in her life that would always remember her birthday and send letters to over the years.
The last thing on our docket, was to head back to Menomonie and visit Ditto’s place for our customary Christmas drinks. We played ping pong with her kids, pool with Shane and had some wonderful conversations before wobbling back to the hotel to crash.
What else? (I’m losing steam right now) — oh we were quite happy to get ack to home and realize our cats are the best cats in the world. I will never again say how fat they are after seeing so many obese cats up north. Geez, ours looked like midget Olympians.
Okay…shower time.
Wow.
Just…..wow. It’s been quite a while since I have anticipated and subsequently devoured a book – World War Z by Max Brooks doesn’t disappoint.
I’m feeling a little, post “great book” syndrome and therefore will have to update tomorrow.
Finally home. I should really do a big update … but I’m kind of tired and just want to veg out. At the same time I am not quit sure just …what to do. I mean, I know have unlimited amounts of free time…(or at least it feels like it)…should I:
A. Watch TV
B. Read World War Z
C. Play Kingdom Hearts II
D. Catch up on the internet/livejournal, wazika…
See? Too many good choices. I am also hungry but I am in no mood to cook. I wish a tater tot casserole would just appear in the oven, all cooked and ready to eat. We did have breakfast at 1:00 this afternoon …. and I dumped a pot of coffee on my lap – thank god for a change of clothes. But that was a long time ago, also all the riding in the car gave me a kink my back. I hate kinks.
Yeah…I’ll update at work. What else is that for? 
Good day. I’ll update more later.
Tim and I just finished playing four games of Abalone — one of his Christmas presents that ONCE AGAIN he guessed. Damn. The game is pretty fun and really easy to learn. We are also enjoying the Door Country Christmas wine…it’s goooooooood.
Merry Christmas folks — here’s to getting something good to eat.
Cheated? Me?? (See comment two entries ago). No! I thought I mentioned that I was so tired I forgot to hit post….and then this morning I had some publishing problems so…yeah.
ANYWHO…guess where I am? If you guessed the Super 8 in Menonomie then you are correct! We have wireless access, so I will be able to keep my pledge of posting every day. ROCK! *pats self on the back* So I am sitting here, enjoying a glass of wine in a plastic cup and cookie out of the cookie tray that I made for ourselves and checking the internet. It’s a slow day, so I got to the posting right quick. Since we are in this hotel for three nights for Christmas, I decided to make it cozy. When I was making the cookie trays/plates, I made sure to make a little one for ourselves, a chocolate bar, and some liqueur chocolates and two bottles of wine. One of which is that infamous Door County Christmas Wine that I see commercials for all over the place. I’m saving that one for Monday or Sunday night.
So we left Madison about 2.30 and got to Andrew and Lori’s at about 4:00 and stayed until 7:00. We had such a nice visit with them. Alex and Andrew both actually started talking near the end! Amazing. Lori, of course, is a great host and introduced me to the wonders of coconut creme creamer. Oh my god…it’s like eating pie and drinking coffee at the same time. I HAVE to find myself some. We exchanged gifts — and seemed liked they liked their presents. It’s so hard to figure out what to get so many people … it’s like our gift list is actually bigger when my Mom get’s Christmas, because of the trek up north and all the brilliant people we just have to visit along the way. I mean, when I think about it, this is the most I ever gotten…well the most for the most people anyway: Andrew, Alex, Cody, Lori/Frank, Dad/Barb, Mom, Shane, Ditto, Josh, Frank, Hilary, Leta, Mina, Hilary/Jason, Jessie, Curtis, Dean, Becca, Lucas, Tim, Amy, Rhyse, Dane and Janet. That is a big list, in my opinion.
They gave us gifts! It’s amazing how much I appreciate the thought that our friends and family give us when they give us stuff. I never expect anything in return (probably from growing up with rarely getting anything), so it’s so cool when we do get things. I mean, they are total icing on the cake, and everything seems really wonderful. I mean, I am pretty happy with my haul so far. Lori gave me some lemon something hand lotion that makes your hands feel so very soft and good smelling (perfect because I have begun to be afflicted with dry skin and I have no lotion in the house), a blue glass pendent (I can’t remember the last time someone has given me jewelry … I think it was a necklace that Amy made me three years ago), stamps, and ….get this….and….I mentioned that I wanted to play Kingdom Hearts II for a while now…and Alex went into his bedroom and produced the very game! They said I could borrow it…how freaking awesome is that? I can’t wait to get home and get started on it. I have been itching for a video game for *quite* awhile. And I have free time next weekend to play now that all the preparation for Christmas is done…all we have left to do is the good stuff…the visiting. It’s this time that makes all that hard work worth it.
Not to mention the booty that I got from Hilary — Amy Sedaris’s party book, a journal and the kitchen type stationary, the Helium Vola CD from Tim, the War on Z and awesome skirt I got myself…man, it could end now and I’d be happy.
Anyway. Tomorrow is our visit with Myrna and possibly Melinda (an old high school friend that I haven’t seen in 15 years…IF she calls me), and stop by my Mom’s place to drop off some food. Other than that, I want to take it easy and possibly go and see Night at the Museum at the theater. I have been wanting to see that movie since I first saw a preview for it a month ago.
I’m getting pretty long winded here…it might be the bottle of wine that Tim and I killed going straight to my head. I had a pretty light dinner of jello, a bite of smoked salmon, a piece of cheese and four pieces of small raisin bread….oh and a cookie.
Sometimes, I think it might be my serverside of things that muck things up. In any case I was too tired to hit post I guess…and now today there seems to be problems updating. Hopefully it will resolve itself before we leave.
This morning we slept in until 10:30. Man, sleeping off a night of open faced cribbage with Ben and Kelly in their adorable house in Milwaukee, after dropping of Pluto to his dog sitter, with a few glasses of wine/beer was ….great. Ahh. Christmas part II was a success.
So this morning I made (am making mincemeat pie). While I was making that, I poured myself a cup of coffee. Later I took a sip and almost spit it out. It tasted awful. I had Tim taste it, and he agreed it was horrible. “What did you pour in it?!” he exclaimed.
“Just the usual….cream….su….” and then I realized that making pie crust and a cup of coffee at the same time is a bad idea. Instead of sugar, I had poured salt into it. :X
Yeah, I hope that isn’t the face of things to come. Today, we start the trek up north. Stopping at Lori and Andrew followed by Dad/Barb and then the hotel.
Things I still have to do:
-take a shower and get dressed
-pack
-finish wrapping gifts
-clean the car
-find music for trip
-pack car
-drive
-oh and feed the cats and possum
If I don’t manage to post (and I’ll try VERY hard) … Merry Christmas to ALL, and to all a good Day.
(that is if I can get this to post)
Today was BUSY!
Hilary, Mina and Leta came over at noon with a coffee and McChicken for a break. It was the perfect inspiration to get off my butt to take a shower and start cleaning the house. After they left, Heather came over for a visit while I made nut rolls and fudge and started putting together plates. I made one for Hilary, Laima, Oliver, Tim’s boss, Pluto’s sitter and Ben and Kelly as well as for one for Heather and Nick (at least for tonight). Of course I felt terrible when I remember JUST as we were leaving Oliver’s that he has a nut allergy and almost everything in there had nuts…everything except the sugar cookie, gingerbread man and saltine toffee. Oh well, I suppose the saltine toffee matters the most.
In addition I also got a box of homemade chocolates in the mail from Jen! (an internet pal). COOOooooll….they look so delicious. I have made up a box to take over to the mail tomorrow…watch, it will arrive on Tuesday…but the cookies/candy shouldn’t get stale…in fact these are the kind of things that are better with a little age. Anyway…we went over to Hilary’s for the grand start of Christmas! I got awesome stuff: Amy Sedaris’s party book, a journal and great kitchen paper kit (memo, letter box, etc), Tim even walked away with a 12 year bottle of scotch. DANG!
Here are the pictures after the gift frenzy…it’s the best I could do with out obessing.
