Fun night

So I went to Brenda's tonight with Betty. It's weird that they have known each other for years and years and I've known Betty forever and Brenda is one of my newest friends and none of us knew that we knew the others. Phew -- talk about run-on sentence. LOL!! Anyway we had dinner, yummy! and talked and talked and talked. I had a great time.

If we don't have a snow day tomorrow, I am leaving work at 10 so I can go to Sandy's dad's funeral.

Busy Sunday

Today I spent most of the day doing  housey things. I put away some things in the pantry and rearranged a little better so I can find things. It needs a lot more work in there but it's a start. I also filed coupon fliers and got rid of ones that went back to last summer. LOL!!

Cooked broiled wings, premade ribs, niblets and am waiting for the hot crashed potatoes be done. YUM!!

After I take out the dogs, I will relax and knit and watch some dvr'd stuff. I'm tired!

Prices climbing

I spent the day going from store to store looking at the cost of Hellman's mayonnaise. Why? Because I went to CVS for tuna -- 77 cents for solid white -- and saw a disply of Hellman's. I figured they were having a sale and checked the price -- well over $6 for a 30 oz jar!!!!!!!!!! My jaw almost hit the floor.

So I went to Stop and Shop who has it on reduced price for a few weeks -- normally around $3.49 (still high in my opinion) but only $2.99. I bought three ars and heade to Target (again, around $3.49) and Big Y which cost the most. I will be stocking up, if I have the extra money, on non-perishables when I see them from now on. I read somewhere that the price of foods are going to skyrocket and it looks like they might be rigth!

Car day

So silly old me had no clue that working anti lock brakes feel horrible when they're doing what they're supposed to do. I was on my way to work, down a hill, when I slid a little and the brakes started going trrrrrrrrrrrrr under my foot. I went into panic mode, went home and called in work telling them my brakes were about to give out. My son then tells me no, that's how those brakes work. That means they're working well. Called John anyway. He said the same thing but told me he'd check them anyway to give me peace of mind.

Had him also check the battery and the fluids. All was good and he didn't charge me. YEAH!

Then I went and paid car taxes. YUCK! and then to get tires. The tires took well over three hours because of glitches but now all is well and my Jeep has all his fluids, battery is great (just the gauge isn't working properly), and brand new tires. Now I can feel safer!

Snow day

More snow and no work again today. Of course I don't mind!

Talked to Carol and she's going to let me keep Zooey. I told her I just can't give her up. I can't. We've bonded so well and both Pino and I would be devastated if she went.

My friend Di posted on Facebook that her house burned down and her animals are dead. Luckily she, her husband and kids are all ok. They need everying. Poor things.

Today in the back yard:

Snow!

What a winter we're having! And it's not even close to being over. A winter reminiscent of the days when I was a kid and would be outside all day long and after dark sledriding and shoveling our walkway and having snowball fights.

It started around 9:30 this morning so I left at 10 and it took me over 45 minutes to get home -- driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee -- usually a 20 minute ride. They closed the university at noon so I'll lose that time and have to use my vacation time. I really don't care. I made it home and that's all that counts!!

Making rotini with sausage and broccoli for supper -- it's almost done. YEAH!

Knitting and tv will follow!

More snow on the way

Woke up this morning to a very light flurry but the vehicles had an inch or so of light snow on them. The roads were clear -- shiney but driveable and I went to work. THEN it started snowing. But by the time I had to leave the roads were just wet. Phew! But they're predicting a bunch of snow tomorrow night into Thursday morning. At the very least I don't think I'll be in work on Thursday. Depending on what's happening outside in the morning I'll either not go in or leave at the first snowflake!

Got my hair cut and colored -- about time! LOL!

Went to the lodge for an officer's meeting and then came home. Called Sandy -- her dad is still hanging in there but he's pretty much out of it. It doesn't sound like he'll be here much longer. :(

Nothing to say

Went to work.
Went to therapy.
Did not go to swordfighting practice. Told them I can't do that and therapy in the same day. Hurts too much.
That's it!

Still remembering

I am on a roll of writing in here! It's all trivial stuff but still. I have a place to put my thoughts and if I make the effort to write something every day, it's a good thing.

Mr. M is still hanging in there. He has cancer in his brain, lungs and probably pancreas and bladder. He wants to go home but of course he can't. The poor man.

Spent the day putzing around. Put all my scrapbooking stuff into the craft room. That should pretty much take care of all craft-related stuff. It is all in one room and all nice and sorted. At least I hope so!

I also ran and bought a few groceries and made sheperd's pie for supper and for me to take to work tomorrow. Did a bit of knitting on the scarf too.

Last night I went through all my WIPs and realized I have quite a few. All of them ones I want to finish. I definitely need to make me some knitting time! Or knit instead of being on the computer or playing Super Mario. Geez! LOL!!

Old friends and more

Met Seb for breakfast and we talked for a good two hours. I'd forgotten how nice it was to hang out with him. We definitely will try to get together more often. He belongs to a camera club that meets twice a mont and I might join him for once a month. The other date is Cosmic so if I am going there I can't go with Seb. Maybe now I'll learn some decent photography!

Sandy's dad is in hospice and has only days to live. Mr. M lived life his way. I'm not looking forward to another funeral. *sigh*

Worked on the craft room for awhile and now am going to sit and do another pattern set or two while I watch Fringe.

Talked to Carol for a few minute and could hear my Pumpkin in the background. She had me talk to her and she said the baby smiled. God how I miss them!!!!!

Other than the sad things, today has been a good day!

Old friends

Meeting Seb for coffee in the morning -- haven't really seen each other for 10 years or so. There's a LOT catch up on. We talked on the phone for almost two hours and I never do that!! He's starting a photography business, already subsidizing his living with photography. He said I can go with him to a photography club where you learn a lot. It's the first and third Wednesday of the month. I'll go on the third Wednesday because I have the Cosmic Society on the first.

Sooooo I didn't have to go into work until noon today and after work I went to Joann's. I couldn't wait to find #1 circulars so I figured I'd buy them. They only had ONE set. I bought them but now I still need another. Geez!

A Good Day

At work: I'm getting the hang of putting the report together. It's kind of like a puzzle and the pieces are starting to fit. Yeah me!

At home: Knit another pattern set on the scarf. Then I allowed myself to open my order that came in the mail from Holiday Yarns -- a kit to knit the Seven Chakras socks. All I can say is Oh. My. God. I can't wait to start on them and hope that I finish them. Of course I don't have the right size needles. It is recommended that whether or not you use two circulars (#1's) or dpns, you do the cast ons on circulars.

So ... that's why I accomplished something else. I took all of the circulars I have that are lying around with nothing on them and put them back on my Circular Solution. Have at least one of every size except for -- yep, you got it -- #1's.

Next task will be to go through each and every UFO that I have to see what needles they are on. That will accomplish two things. First, I'll have a list of all my UFOs and know where they are. Second, I will have a list of all needles that are in use. This way I won't end up buying needles I already have. I mean I have at least five sets of #6 straights! Geez!

So over all I had some accomplishments today.

And they're calling for snow tonight into tomorrow. I already told my boss that if it's snowing when I wake up and work isn't canceled or delayed, I will not be in. So possibly another long weekend ahead for me.

Beat it

Beat level one in Super Mario -- finally! But now I'm going to watch some tv and settle in for the night. They are predicting another storm for tomorrow night into Friday -- another day off from work?????? This is an honet-to-God real winter this year. I'm truely amazed!

I knit another few inches on the scarf for the exchange and I like how its coming out. Its going to be pretty with the Noro wool. And lace is a LOT easier than it sounds.

Yucky day

Rain and lots of it. Actually rainy, not a lot of rain but enough warmth to be melting tons of snow but cold enough to make parking lots a sheet of ice. Work was delayed until 11 but we shouldn't have opened at all.

When I got home I decided to try playing Super Mario again. Still can't beat the first level bad guy. *sigh*

Nastiness!

I accidentally bought 'healthy' cream of chicken soup. UGH! I do NOT knowingly buy food that has been tampered with to make it 'heathy'. I was making chicken and broccoli casserole and opened the soup and it looked funny. I looked at the label and instead of plain old Campbell's, it was Campbell's Healthy Request. WTF?????????? If that crap is healthy then so is smoking. *shudder* Nasty, nasty, nasty. BLECH!!!!

So I dumped it down the sink and opened a can of the real stuff.

I can actually taste the nastiness in light yogurt when I eat that by accident. Oh my God! It's waaaaayyy too sweet and tastes horrid. Sure enough when I look at the ingredients there is poison in there -- aspartame. Why the hell can't they leave food alone? I really resent having to read fine print to see what's in my food!

Went to therapy tonight and my back is feeling worse. It's been hurting a lot lately and I decided, once again, not to go to sword fightng.

Brunch and stuff

Had brunch at the lodge today with Yvonne and Spencer then came home. Karla came by with the three little girls. They're growing up so fast!

Later Di came by with her old friend -- her lifelong friend. He's doing so good and I'm glad that he is.

Supposedly we're getting another storm this week. We'll see.

Worked a bit on the scarf for the exchange. I lke the way the pattern is coming out.

Down day

Woke up not feeling great and hopefully avoided that god-awful stomach bug going around. Felt a little nauseas (pukey -- can't spell today!!) and sick to my stomach but it did pass, thank God! So other than going to the post office, and down to bring the dogs out, I just stayed in. Napped a lot. Knit some -- started a scarf for the scarf echange. Read a bit and watched tv a bit. That's it for today.

Weirdness

Somehow I missed posting a few days -- I was positive I posted yesterday. Guess not!

There's nothing interesting going on anyway but I want to try to post something every day.

Well today is Friday and we have a three-day weekend. Yesterday work was delayed until  noon so it's been a very short week. YEAH!

I'm just about finished reading my first book for the library's winter reing program for adults. I think it's just something to get people reading. You submit a review for each book and then your name goes into a drawing. I like this because it gets me motivated to do more reading. The book I'm finishing in a few minutes is If Books Could Kill, the second book in a series by Kate Carlisle. I like this series. The next book I've got to read is A Holiday Yan by Sally Goldenbaum -- this is part of a series also and there's one before it that I didn't read yet. I hate doing that but the library didn't have the other book and I need to read! I hope it doesn't spoil anything for the previous book.

Benedict

They call this blizzard Benedict and say it is quite possibly the worst winter storm in our recorded history. I say bull -- I remember worse but I'm no meteorologist either.

So here's a few pictures of the dogs in the snow. Pino loved it. Not too sure about Zooey!

No work tomorrow

We already go notice that the university will be closed tomorrow. Nor'easter on the way -- up to 18" of snow. We're under alert starting at 7 p.m. tonight and going throug 6 p.m tomorrow night. Hmmm ... I wonder ... is there a possibility of getting Thursday off too?

Anyway, we are all set -- not that we've ever been snowbound for more than a day in my memory. Have mac and cheese, there's eggs, bread, dogs have food; we have toilet paper, new books from the library and a pepperoni pizza with black olives and fresh garlic on the way. I love winter!

Home tonight

I went to therapy but decided to skip swordfighting and the house committee meeting. My throat felt scratchy today and I just wanted to come home and rest. I did make mac and cheese -- it's in the oven right now. I've been craving it and now they're saying we're getting a Nor'Easter tomorrow night into Wednesday so I'll need my yummy comfort food! My boss is saying he'll probably close the university on Wednesday so I believe there are no 'ifs' about this storm. Like I said -- we're having a real winter this year!

History

Today was Twelfth Night at the Derby Historical Society and I worked the gift shop as usual. I really enjoy volunteering there and always have a nice time.Eventually I'd like to do more than work the gift shop but for now, that's where I'm needed. I'm going to try to upload a picture here that was taken with my camera by another volunteer. I thought this was appropriate for me -- a spinning wheel!

It worked! Now I'll be able to post picturs when I want. YEAH!

Pot roast day

The snow melted on the roads and on my Jeep, after I shoveled it off. Took a ride to the post office and the roads were fine. I do believe we're having a real winter though.

So today I cooked a pot roast. I don't like the stuff but figured my son might. He eats that sort of stuff. Of course he went out so he will be eating it all week. Maybe he can bring some to work with him. LOL!!!

Other than my trip to the post office, I stayed home all day. Watched several Merlins, worked on the shawl, played online. A nice quiet day.

Snowing!

It's snowing like mad -- started this afternoon. For some odd reason half the schools in the state were closed today due to the storm that didn't start until way after the kids would have been home. The university didn't close but I was off anyway. We left the casino early because of the weather people saying how awful it was and there wasn't a snowflake on the way home. LOL!!

I couldn't post in here on Wednesday -- I tried but it wouldn't let me. And last night I was at Mohegan and I don't like trying to do long posts from my I-Phone. Now I'm home -- dogs are happy, pea soup (YUCK!) cooking, watching Merlin. I didn't know they did a third season and moved it to Scyfy (I hate that spelling!), so when they did a marathon this week, I recorded it all. And all the shows have started back up plus my friend, Danu, recorded all of the last season of Warehouse 13 for me, so I'm set for knitting now. Going to work on one of the shawls from the mystery knit along I did and never finished. It's one of Sharon Dreyfuss' beautiful designs and I'm determined to finish all the ones I joined before joining another one of her KALs. I have started stuff all over the place!

The dogs are doing great. I think Zooey's just about completely bonded. At one point today she offered me her belly to rub and another time she jumped on me while I was trying to cook. I am not going to want to give her back!.

Back to Merlin...

Still going

Almost forgot to post tonight but remembered at the last minute. Routine day except for having an Elks meeting tonight. And I decided to run for a chair next year. They said if anyone was interested in running for an office to sign up tonight so I signed up for Lecturing Knight. Don't know why because I really don't see myself going around to Exalted Ruler in four or five years but you never know! I'm doing more and more things I thought I'd never do. I'm even thinking of auditioning for a part -- scripted part if there's a place for me -- at faire. Who would have ever thought I'd be doing this stuff? Wow!

Three in a row!

I wonder how long I can keep this up? LOL!!
Back to work after three days off. I love my job but hate having to drive half an hour to get there. Oh well, I'm lucky I'm working. Too many people are out of work these days.

Fight practice was awesome tonight. We were told to partner up and given six numbers and had to put together a fight with them in any order. I'm not good at making up fights so my partner 'wrote' it and we both refine it. I ended up using two hands to hold the sword on the 4 block and the 5A block so I could keep the blade straight. My partner's idea but it worked and they actually said it was a good idea and that I've found my style. How cool is that? I have a style! I love it!

Dogs are doing great. Came home to one small puddle. Keeping my fingers crossed that the next time there won't be any puddles.

Small amount of reading and no knitting done. There just wasn't enough time.

Day two

Two days in a row of posting in the blog -- it's got to be a record or something! LOL!!

Today was a very lazy day. I went to Target to buy toothpicks and spent around $65 -- I can't just walk into a store and get what I went there for. Besides I had to buy three containers of Folgers since they were only $7 each. Most stores are charging over $10. Then went across the street to Big Y and bought more stuff. *sigh*

Didn't get anything done that I'd planned. No knitting at all but I did take a long, hot bath and read a lot. I also watched last night's Primeval, second season premiere. I hadn't seen the first season but it looks good.

The dogs are doing good. Zooey seems to be getting more normal every day. We'll see what tomorrow brings. She's great if I'm gone a few hours but five or more hours gives her anxiety, I guess. She can go all night without an 'accident' -- nine or ten hours -- but if I'm gone that long to work, I come back to pee in the kitchen and poop in the bathroom. I am positive she does it to pay me back. At least it's not in the quantities it was in the beginning. She and I are bonding and she and Pino are too and I doubt very much I'll want to give her back when the time comes.

Have a doctor's appointment at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow so I'll be heading to work late. This is the checkup to see how physical therapy is working. I think it's sort of working. We'll see. Also have swordfighting practice tomorrow night. I haven't been in a month so I hope I do well.

2011

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

January 1, 2011 -- When we were teenagers, this year was so far in the future that it was Sci Fi! Amazing. And very cool!

Looking back on 2010:
The best and most amazingly wonderful thing that happened was that my daughter had her first baby. She was seven weeks old yesterday and is the light of our lives. My other granddaughter will be 15 this year -- all I have to say to that is wow!!

My daughter divorced her emotionally abusive husband and is with a wonderful guy who I'm so happy is the father of her child.

Accomplished a bunch of knitting for exchages and started  million projects. Lots of UFOs there. Hope to fininsh some of them in the New Year. LOL!

Had someone who said she was a friend but did nothing but complain since November of 2009. My ex husband passed away back then and I canceled Thanksgiving dinner. Then I had the dinner for myself and my granddaughter. And the 'friend' who was originally invited went ballistic. She'd told me it was ok when I canceled and she had several other invitations. But she is still pissed at me -- well over a year later. She calls me a user -- I was without a car for a year and she was kind enough to ask me weekly if I needed to grocery shop and I'd accept. I didn't ask her to take me and I certainly had other ways of getting to the grocery store. I thought she was being a friend plus we'd go out to eat and hang out -- you know, doing friend stuff. She deliberately lied and told me she'd be too busy from then on out to take me grocery shopping. No problem, I had other ways of going. But for a year she's told anyone who will listen then I used her for her car. That I univited her from Thanksiving dinner, etc., etc. etc.  A year! My God! Who can hold grudges like that? And who is so unconcerned and cold-hearted that they would act like that knowing that someone is grieving? I may not have been married to him, but that didn't mean I didn't love him still or that I shouldn't grieve more than a day. Unbelievable.

Anyway the point of all that is that I have stopped all communications with this person and will try my damndest not to allow any negativity into my life beginning with this new year!

And blog -- I'm going to try to blog regularly. This way I may remember things if I write them here!