1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Uhm. I'm not sure. Wasn't very adventurous this year...
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't make resolutions because I'm terrible at keeping them. Why set myself up for failure?
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Evan and Jodi added Caroline in September. It was a regular baby boom over on Adam's side - four of his cousins had babies this year - also all girls, I think.
4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandfather.
5. What countries did you visit? Travel in 2009? We went into Canada in August for a day. That was pretty much our big trip of the year - our week long mega driving adventure during the hottest week of the year. Then there was that whole debacle at the beginning of December. Worst. Trip. Ever.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More money, more travel, more time.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Nothing too shocking happened this year so I don't know that one date stands out.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Not suffocating Carly with my pillow. That has taken a lot of self control.
9. What was your biggest failure? I didn't read near as much as I wanted to - I still find myself drawn to the TV instead.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing out of the ordinary.
11. What was the best thing you bought? I bought all of Kristin Chenoweth's albums. Wonderful.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? No one that I can think of off the top of my head.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Damn cheating politicians and celebrities. They make everyone else look like angels.
14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage and house expenses. That's how it'll be for, well, 27 more years.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? We booked our flight and hotel for our trip to NYC next May and I found out that Kristin Chenoweth will be on Broadway while we're there. I'm really, really, really excited to see her live!
16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Beyonce's "Single Ladies." From the babies dancing to the SNL spoof with Justin Timberlake in a leotard...awesome.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? About the same, most days. b) thinner or fatter? I think I'm probably about in the same place right now. I'm working on that. c) richer or poorer? Poorer. Ugh.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Travel just for the heck of it. Our one big trip was basically a lot of driving with a quick stop here and there.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Watch tv, spend money.
20. How did you spend Christmas? We went over to Adam's parents' house on Christmas Day for dinner. The next day we went back for lunch and Christmas with his uncle. We met my dad and Cheryl for dinner on the 27th.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009? Not with anyone new.
22. What was your favorite TV program? I'm really enjoying "The Good Wife" and "Glee"
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nope. I can't say for sure that no one newly hates me though. But I can't really do anything about that... Some people are too sensitive.
24. What was the best book you read? A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth - hilarious!
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I'm obsessed with David Archuleta. Yes, he's not new for 2009, but I'm a bit behind the curve.
26. What did you want and get? A new deep fryer and a Keurig coffee machine.
27. What did you want and not get? The Simon's Cat book. I'm not too worried - my birthday's coming soon. :-)
28. What was your favorite film of this year? I maintain that either The Reader or The Visitor should have won best picture. I didn't really see too many new movies this year. Nothing that stuck out as the best movie ever, at least.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned, uhm, 27 this year. (Uh oh, I had to think about that one. I must be getting old...) I don't think we did anything. Check the archives...
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? more money or free travel opportunities
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Black. And no horizontal stripes.
32. What kept you sane? Blasting (and lip-synching to) Miley Cyrus while on the treadmill. (Seriously, it's kind of embarassing to admit, but Miley and Britney seem to make the best workout songs - I have to have something with an obnoxious bass beat to it...I imagine I look totally ridiculous.)
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Still not up on the "who's cute" in the celebrity world.
34. What political issue stirred you the most? I ignore most of them.
35. Who did you miss? No one.
36. Who was the best new person you met? No one.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Timing is everything - and sometimes it's really off...
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. I'm drawing a blank here. I'll get back to you. Maybe.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
How Do You Know When It's Love?
I can't tell you, but it lasts forever...
Is that Van Halen song sufficiently stuck in your brain now? No? Ok, here:
You're welcome.
Anyway. For Christmas Adam's parents (under the alias Nana and Papa. Hmm.) gave the cats a stocking full of assorted toys and catnip. I was immediately drawn to a cute gingerbread man with candy canes on his chest. I gave it to Carly, who beat him up a little at first...
but I think a lasting bond has formed:
Awww.
Is that Van Halen song sufficiently stuck in your brain now? No? Ok, here:
You're welcome.
Anyway. For Christmas Adam's parents (under the alias Nana and Papa. Hmm.) gave the cats a stocking full of assorted toys and catnip. I was immediately drawn to a cute gingerbread man with candy canes on his chest. I gave it to Carly, who beat him up a little at first...
but I think a lasting bond has formed:
Awww.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Public Enimies
(No, I'm not stupid. I misspelled that on purpose. Read on...)
We rented Public Enemies the other day, pretty much just to pick out the scenes that were filmed in Oshkosh. (Mostly after the escape from Sioux Falls, BTW.) Anyway, the movie itself was so slow. It could have been a great gangster film. Instead they tried to turn it into some emotion-wrenching love story between Johnny and Billie. Boring! More bank robbing and car chasing, please.
In any case, we watched the credits to see what all they said about Wisconsin since they filmed a great deal of the movie here. Lo and behold, I caught this and made Adam rewind it so I could snap a picture:
THEY SPELLED "WINNEBAGO" WRONG! Hello, editing department? *sigh* That's just wrong.
We rented Public Enemies the other day, pretty much just to pick out the scenes that were filmed in Oshkosh. (Mostly after the escape from Sioux Falls, BTW.) Anyway, the movie itself was so slow. It could have been a great gangster film. Instead they tried to turn it into some emotion-wrenching love story between Johnny and Billie. Boring! More bank robbing and car chasing, please.
In any case, we watched the credits to see what all they said about Wisconsin since they filmed a great deal of the movie here. Lo and behold, I caught this and made Adam rewind it so I could snap a picture:
THEY SPELLED "WINNEBAGO" WRONG! Hello, editing department? *sigh* That's just wrong.
Seriously Creepy
This, I think, is the very definition of "sleeping with one eye open":
Trust No One.
Trust No One.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Random Sentences
I've added an Award Nominee section over on the right to track my progress in watching all the movies this year. I'm up to 4 - we went to see The Blind Side yesterday. Not bad after you get past Sandra Bullock's obnoxious accent.
Also added over there a couple weeks ago was a "wish list" section. So, if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, or are already thinking about my birthday... there you go.
I've spent this morning finishing up the wrapping of gifts. Well, almost. I've got to finish the cards for the ladies at bells still. JC "helped" and is all tuckered out:
And here's Ted and Connor all cuddled up in our comforter on Sunday when I was washing sheets:
Cats always find the best places to sleep. I stayed in bed a little later than usual yesterday while Adam worked his hour and when he came back out I was covered in cats - Carly by my head, JC by my knees, and Conner by my side. Who knows where Ted was - he's anti-social. It was nice though. They sure keep me warm!
Also added over there a couple weeks ago was a "wish list" section. So, if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, or are already thinking about my birthday... there you go.
I've spent this morning finishing up the wrapping of gifts. Well, almost. I've got to finish the cards for the ladies at bells still. JC "helped" and is all tuckered out:
And here's Ted and Connor all cuddled up in our comforter on Sunday when I was washing sheets:
Cats always find the best places to sleep. I stayed in bed a little later than usual yesterday while Adam worked his hour and when he came back out I was covered in cats - Carly by my head, JC by my knees, and Conner by my side. Who knows where Ted was - he's anti-social. It was nice though. They sure keep me warm!
A Motivational Poster
We'd been eyeing this poster at Blockbuster the last few months. It cracked us both up and seemed like a perfect addition to Adam's new home office. The last time we saw it it was on clearance but we decided to wait. Then the next time we went in all of them were gone. But it was fate - when we went in yesterday there was one sitting there, waiting for us:
Bwahahahahaha!
Bwahahahahaha!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Week in Review, Cliff Notes Version
Quick recap of the past week (because that's probably all I'm going to get around to...)
Monday - back to work. Still behind, but catching up. Bell practice in the evening. Had to compete for parking with the Catholic Central band concert parents. Oh, and the fact that half the parking lot was a big pile of snow.
Tuesday - IMA Holiday meeting. Pretty good turn-out all told. Good raffle results. Thankfully no coffee mugs on the docket this year. Adam got some flameless candles and I got some canned air during the Santa raffle. We also won a trunk organizer and some reed diffuser set that we're regifting. Theoretically we also won a crockpot set and a roaster but I re-drew so someone else could have them. I don't need anymore crockpots!
Wednesday - I think this is the day I finally started on December things at work. Just ridiculous...
Thursday - Word got around that I had cookies at my desk (although they'd been there all week) so I had a lot of visitors.
Friday - A half day for me. Left work, came home and made chicken soup, then Adam came home (half day for him as well) and we did some shopping. Went to the Monkey Bar for some much needed relaxation.
Today - Van Rooy Christmas party. Not as many people showed as last year, but I think the fact that there are three new babies might have something to do with that. Still a good time and this year there was even a present for me!
Looking forward, we both have this entire week off from work (if you exclude the hour each morning during which Adam will have to run reports.) Tuesday night is Milprint's Christmas party. Wednesday we have church at night and the bells play. Thursday we'll be going to Adam's parents' house for dinner. The bells play again on Sunday. Nothing else planned, but I've got a rather long to-do list I'd like to tackle.
It's snowing right now so we'll see how much we get this time. That might also affect plans.
Monday - back to work. Still behind, but catching up. Bell practice in the evening. Had to compete for parking with the Catholic Central band concert parents. Oh, and the fact that half the parking lot was a big pile of snow.
Tuesday - IMA Holiday meeting. Pretty good turn-out all told. Good raffle results. Thankfully no coffee mugs on the docket this year. Adam got some flameless candles and I got some canned air during the Santa raffle. We also won a trunk organizer and some reed diffuser set that we're regifting. Theoretically we also won a crockpot set and a roaster but I re-drew so someone else could have them. I don't need anymore crockpots!
Wednesday - I think this is the day I finally started on December things at work. Just ridiculous...
Thursday - Word got around that I had cookies at my desk (although they'd been there all week) so I had a lot of visitors.
Friday - A half day for me. Left work, came home and made chicken soup, then Adam came home (half day for him as well) and we did some shopping. Went to the Monkey Bar for some much needed relaxation.
Today - Van Rooy Christmas party. Not as many people showed as last year, but I think the fact that there are three new babies might have something to do with that. Still a good time and this year there was even a present for me!
Looking forward, we both have this entire week off from work (if you exclude the hour each morning during which Adam will have to run reports.) Tuesday night is Milprint's Christmas party. Wednesday we have church at night and the bells play. Thursday we'll be going to Adam's parents' house for dinner. The bells play again on Sunday. Nothing else planned, but I've got a rather long to-do list I'd like to tackle.
It's snowing right now so we'll see how much we get this time. That might also affect plans.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Christmas Questions
I totally stole this because I'm un-creative.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the gift. Some are easy to wrap, others are a pain. I wrap most things though – and if there are more than one I might put them in a bag!
2. Real tree or artificial? Fake. Pre-lit. We’re lazy.
3. When do you put up the tree? Pre-cat we’d have it up the day after Thanksgiving. Now that we have four naughty kitties who like climbing it, we put it up for one day each year for our party. We lock the cats up in the morning, clean the house, put up and decorate the tree. We then take it down that evening before we let the cats back out. I even forgot to take a picture this year. Boo.
4. When do you take the tree down? See #3
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, I do. Unfortunately it really doesn’t like me too much so I try to resist it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Christmas was always kind of crazy since both my parents worked at churches. I don’t remember specific gifts as much as I remember waiting up with my brother and sister to see Santa (FAIL – totally fell asleep), and all the unique things my mom did later on (we even celebrated Hanukkah one year.)
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No – although there’s kind of a partial one in a musical snow globe we got as a gift a few years ago (from my dad & Cheryl, I think.)
8. Hardest person to buy for? We don’t really do big gift exchanges in our families. I usually end up giving gift cards. Shipping is expensive!
9. Easiest person to buy for? See #8.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? I think I’m pretty easy to shop for – you can’t go wrong with kitchen stuff or books – so I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten something completely horrible. For the longest time my sister and I would get the exact same thing in different colors from my aunt. I was blue, Catherine was purple. That always bugged me…
11. Mail or e-mail Christmas card? Mail. Just dropped them on Monday.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start thinking about it Thanksgiving weekend. Doing most of it online helps aid my chronic procrastination.
14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present? Sure. If I can’t use it (or don’t want it) why keep it around?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies! I’ve been indulging way too much at work lately…
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. The ornaments provide all the color needed.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Definitely NOT that stupid John Lennon “Happy Christmas” song with the stupid kids choir comprised of children who can’t sing. But that’s not what was asked, is it? My favorite is probably some incarnation of “O Holy Night.” I’ve heard a few this year (Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, David Archuleta) and both my dad and I noted that they seem to have trouble singing more than one verse – they just repeat the first one twice. Hmmm.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We don’t have very far to go to get to Adam’s parents’ house or my dad and Cheryl’s so we try to stop in to each of them at some point. We can’t go too far during the holidays since bells play Christmas Eve and I get very busy at work toward the end of the year.
19. Can you name Santa’s reindeer? There was a “Dear Abby” about this a few days ago! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, DonDER, Blitzen, Rudolph. And Olive (as in Olive the other reindeer. Bwahahahaha. Seriously though, there’s a song about Olive – we (my mom, my sister, and I) used to sing it when we did programs at nursing homes along with another favorite – Christmas on the Isthmus of Panama, now with tap dancing!) Wow. Tangent. Sorry about that.
20. Do you have an angel on top or a star? For the 6 hours it was up, we had a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? No real rule set in stone. Last year we opened them right after our party since they were all under our tree and, well, we had to take the tree down so what the heck. Not sure what this year will bring.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic by the mall (+ crappy weather.) Luckily I don’t have to go that way very often, but seriously people. Pay attention to where you’re driving and get in the correct lane more than .00001 seconds before you need to turn. Gah.
23. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented? There are a lot of ugly decorations. I’m not one for gaudy ribbon and bows…
25. Which looks best – theme trees or homey trees? Uhm. Theme trees like a tree all about cats? That would be cool. Ours would probably fall into the homey category – it’s a hodge-podge of the ornaments we’ve collected over the past 5 years. Seems like that takes less effort and brain-power than try to coordinate everything. I’m all for easy. See #2.
26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar. I don’t like Gingerbread at all. Usually is too dry and I’m not a fan of the spice combination.
27. Do you like Fruitcake? I don’t know that I’ve ever had it, but I don’t think it would be on my list of favorites. I don’t like nuts or gummy fruit and it sounds kind of dense and heavy.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the gift. Some are easy to wrap, others are a pain. I wrap most things though – and if there are more than one I might put them in a bag!
2. Real tree or artificial? Fake. Pre-lit. We’re lazy.
3. When do you put up the tree? Pre-cat we’d have it up the day after Thanksgiving. Now that we have four naughty kitties who like climbing it, we put it up for one day each year for our party. We lock the cats up in the morning, clean the house, put up and decorate the tree. We then take it down that evening before we let the cats back out. I even forgot to take a picture this year. Boo.
4. When do you take the tree down? See #3
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, I do. Unfortunately it really doesn’t like me too much so I try to resist it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Christmas was always kind of crazy since both my parents worked at churches. I don’t remember specific gifts as much as I remember waiting up with my brother and sister to see Santa (FAIL – totally fell asleep), and all the unique things my mom did later on (we even celebrated Hanukkah one year.)
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No – although there’s kind of a partial one in a musical snow globe we got as a gift a few years ago (from my dad & Cheryl, I think.)
8. Hardest person to buy for? We don’t really do big gift exchanges in our families. I usually end up giving gift cards. Shipping is expensive!
9. Easiest person to buy for? See #8.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? I think I’m pretty easy to shop for – you can’t go wrong with kitchen stuff or books – so I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten something completely horrible. For the longest time my sister and I would get the exact same thing in different colors from my aunt. I was blue, Catherine was purple. That always bugged me…
11. Mail or e-mail Christmas card? Mail. Just dropped them on Monday.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start thinking about it Thanksgiving weekend. Doing most of it online helps aid my chronic procrastination.
14. Have you ever regifted a Christmas present? Sure. If I can’t use it (or don’t want it) why keep it around?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies! I’ve been indulging way too much at work lately…
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. The ornaments provide all the color needed.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Definitely NOT that stupid John Lennon “Happy Christmas” song with the stupid kids choir comprised of children who can’t sing. But that’s not what was asked, is it? My favorite is probably some incarnation of “O Holy Night.” I’ve heard a few this year (Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, David Archuleta) and both my dad and I noted that they seem to have trouble singing more than one verse – they just repeat the first one twice. Hmmm.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We don’t have very far to go to get to Adam’s parents’ house or my dad and Cheryl’s so we try to stop in to each of them at some point. We can’t go too far during the holidays since bells play Christmas Eve and I get very busy at work toward the end of the year.
19. Can you name Santa’s reindeer? There was a “Dear Abby” about this a few days ago! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, DonDER, Blitzen, Rudolph. And Olive (as in Olive the other reindeer. Bwahahahaha. Seriously though, there’s a song about Olive – we (my mom, my sister, and I) used to sing it when we did programs at nursing homes along with another favorite – Christmas on the Isthmus of Panama, now with tap dancing!) Wow. Tangent. Sorry about that.
20. Do you have an angel on top or a star? For the 6 hours it was up, we had a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? No real rule set in stone. Last year we opened them right after our party since they were all under our tree and, well, we had to take the tree down so what the heck. Not sure what this year will bring.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic by the mall (+ crappy weather.) Luckily I don’t have to go that way very often, but seriously people. Pay attention to where you’re driving and get in the correct lane more than .00001 seconds before you need to turn. Gah.
23. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented? There are a lot of ugly decorations. I’m not one for gaudy ribbon and bows…
25. Which looks best – theme trees or homey trees? Uhm. Theme trees like a tree all about cats? That would be cool. Ours would probably fall into the homey category – it’s a hodge-podge of the ornaments we’ve collected over the past 5 years. Seems like that takes less effort and brain-power than try to coordinate everything. I’m all for easy. See #2.
26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar. I don’t like Gingerbread at all. Usually is too dry and I’m not a fan of the spice combination.
27. Do you like Fruitcake? I don’t know that I’ve ever had it, but I don’t think it would be on my list of favorites. I don’t like nuts or gummy fruit and it sounds kind of dense and heavy.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Golden Globe Nominations Are In!
Yay - award season has begun and our Blockbuster queue is about to explode. Here are the films (excluding all your usuals - in this case, just foreigns) that were nominated this year:
(500) Days Of Summer
A Serious Man
A Single Man
An Education
Avatar
Brothers
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Crazy Heart
District 9
Duplicity
Everybody's Fine
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Sherlock Holmes
The Blind Side
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Informant!
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
The Princess And The Frog
The Proposal
The Young Victoria
Up
Up In The Air
Where The Wild Things Are
Of these 33 I've seen 3 (in red.) That's horrible. We really haven't gone to many movies this year and it shows. I've got my work cut out for me.
(500) Days Of Summer
A Serious Man
A Single Man
An Education
Avatar
Brothers
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Crazy Heart
District 9
Duplicity
Everybody's Fine
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Sherlock Holmes
The Blind Side
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Informant!
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
The Messenger
The Princess And The Frog
The Proposal
The Young Victoria
Up
Up In The Air
Where The Wild Things Are
Of these 33 I've seen 3 (in red.) That's horrible. We really haven't gone to many movies this year and it shows. I've got my work cut out for me.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Stuck
First things first: Mitch Fatel was wonderful. A little slow at the beginning, but good overall. We somehow had scored VIP seats right at the front (perhaps purchasing our tickets in August had something to do with that) and the opener decided Adam was going to be his target. He was known as "Kohl's" for the entire evening - a reference to his shirt choice (which was from JC Penney, by the way...) It was a good time. It's refreshing to have a comedian in town I've actually heard of before. We got a signed CD from Mitch - made out to "Kohl's." Hilarious.
So now on to the rest of the stuff that has been going on this past week or so. As a somewhat ironic juxtaposition (tangent: every time I use that word I think of my 7th grade English teacher. It was a vocabulary word I just can't get out of my head.), as we were laughing our butts off at the comedy club, my grandfather was taking his leave. My dad called the house and my cell phone (which I had left at home) a little before we got home. We eventually connected to get the news I figured was coming.
Originally the funeral seemed like it would be the next weekend. This was fine with me as we weren't final for the month and I was still way behind because of the auditors. Then my dad called at about 4 on Friday afternoon to tell me the service was on Tuesday and we had to fly out Sunday afternoon. I managed to catch Katie and Mike right before he left for the day to give them the bad news. It was pretty much, "give us what you have and finish the rest when you get back." I stayed a little late to get as far as I could before I had to leave.
Adam got on the phone with my dad to make the flight and hotel arrangements. I admit I wasn't paying attention since I was feeding the cats and getting ready to go to dinner with my UWO acounting friends. Perhaps this is relevant. Up to intepretation I guess. He booked everything and we both left to go our separate ways for dinner.
Saturday was our party. I was busy from 7 until people showed up - and Adam's grandma and Sarah showed up an hour early. After everyone left I did a whole lot of dishes and managed to get everything cleaned up before heading to bed.
Sunday we were out the door before 10. We went down to Sheboygan Falls and picked up my dad and Cheryl. The drive to Milwaukee wasn't bad - nice that all the construction is done. We parked and went to check in. Here's where the fun began. All the Midwest computers were down - not just at Milwaukee, but nation-wide. So we couldn't check in online or at the kiosks in the airport. This meant there were lines. We got to an agent and he couldn't find our reservations. It took a minute and then he told us we had seats - on a flight on the 13th. We looked at our confirmation from Orbitz only to find that our entire trip - flight, hotel, and car - was booked for the 13-15th instead of the 6-8th.
So Adam got on the phone with Orbitz to try and get things changed. Now, I don't know who was to blame for the mix-up, and that's neither here nor there at this point, but Adam sure was the hero for getting things done. He was on the phone with some idiot from Orbitz for an hour and a half trying to get him to change our flight, hotel, and car. He was on hold for a great deal of that time and I can attest to the bad hold music. When he was told that the wait time for the Orbitz guy to talk to a Midwest rep was an hour and a half, my dad went to the agents at Milwaukee and thankfully they were sympathetic. The supervisor there switched our flights to the right weekend (without a change fee) and we moved on to security.
The lines there weren't bad, but Adam was still on the phone with Orbitz working on getting the hotel reservation changed and you can't go through security while talking on the phone. So we... loitered in the open area in front of the security lines. And it took a lot longer than I had expected for a guard to come over and ask us what we were doing. Finally Adam decided to chance it and put his phone - still on - in the tub and sent it through, hoping he'd still be on hold when it came back out the other side. Fate shone on us and that's exactly what happened. We made it through without a problem and headed to the gate. As we were boarding Adam got the confirmation that our hotel had been changed and the car had been cancelled. He booked a different car as we were sitting on the plane at the gate.
We arrived in Pittsburgh on time, deplaned, and headed to the rental car desk. We got the Hyundai Sonata Adam wanted, got situated, and headed to the hotel. We had decided to stay at the same hotel, the Super 8, that we had stayed at in August. It was decent and had good proximity to food and the places we'd be going. We got there only to find out that our reservation had been declined. There was some confusion - we'd booked through Orbitz, but they were trying to get payment from Priceline. While they tried to figure it out we went to dinner at Max & Erma's. About halfway through our meal we got a call from the hotel saying they'd fixed it and we were good to go. After we indulged in some of their famous fresh-baked cookies we went back to check in. For some reason, even though we had booked two of the same room, they had given us one king and one double room. Luckily the person working at the desk suggested that one of us take the handicap room since no one had requested it for the days we'd be there. We got to our rooms, dropped off our stuff, and headed over to Aunt Marilyn's house to visit with everyone for a little while before calling it a night.
Monday morning we met my dad and Cheryl downstairs in the breakfast room. It was unimpressive and Cheryl suggested we go to King's - she'd seen a TV ad that they had $3.99 breakfast meals. So we went back to the room for our coats and headed out. After a very tasty breakfast we headed to Marshalls - Adam was in search of a new pair of pants. While he was unsuccessful, I did find some cute Christmas socks. We then went back to the hotel to wait for Evan to arrive. His flight had been delayed in Cincinnati so we decided to go to lunch and wait for him there.
We stopped by Aunt Marilyn's house first to pick up my grandma's wheelchair and then went to Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse. Adam was pumped at the opportunity to have sushi again. I was happy to see they had forks. Evan arrived 10-15 minutes later and he, my dad, and Cheryl had hibachi while Adam had sushi and I had teriyaki chicken. After we were done Evan headed over to check into the hotel and take a shower (and, I suspect, a nap) and the rest of us headed to the funeral home.
The visitation was from 2-8, which everyone agreed was a long time. We stayed from 1:30 until a little after 4. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing and I was just uncomfortable with the whole thing. I can't imagine what it must have been like for my grandma, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend 6 hours sitting next to a dead body. After we left we called my brother to make sure he could bring my dad and Cheryl back with him and then we took a nap and watched some TV. They returned around 8:45 and we went to Eat 'N Park for dinner. Cute place.
We met the next morning, checked out, and went to King's again for breakfast. Our waitress the previous morning had left halfway through our meal because she aggravated a knee injury. She wasn't there on Tuesday and apparently was out indefinitely. Yikes. After another nice meal we made a Starbucks run before heading out to the funeral home again. This time we were a little late, but still beat Aunt Marilyn. :)
The service itself was in the chapel. It began with a military service conducted by the local retired service members. They shot rifles and everything. I may not support what we're doing in parts of the world, but it's hard not to be moved when service people salute a fallen comrade. On the other hand, at the luncheon at Oakhill Church after the service, my grandma said that my grandpa would not have liked that part of the service. He was a veteran, yes, but he was drafted, he didn't volunteer, and his lack of discussion on the topic would seem to indicate his attitude toward his service days was not a positive one.
After the military part was done, my Uncle John officiated the rest of the service. Both he and Aunt Marilyn gave eulogies along with a short, but heartfelt addition from my Uncle Paul. My dad played the piano. It was tough, but for the most part uplifting. I've been lucky in life and this was the first funeral for a family member and only the third funeral I've attended, ever. I guess I just don't know how to react in these situations. It's hard to sit there and listen when my ideology is so different from the beliefs that make the whole thing bearable to most everyone around me. I respect what they need and I don't want to be disrespectful, but at the same time I can't say things I don't mean. It's a difficult thing.
Anyway. After the service I made myself useful by helping clean up the myriad of pictures and flowers in the visitation room. We got them all loaded into Lori and Dave's van. As we prepared to drive to the church for the lunch Adam checked our flight status. We knew the weather in Milwaukee was supposed to be evil, but when he said our flight was cancelled I initially thought he was joking. As my brother, dad, and Cheryl went to see where my great-grandparents were (and where my grandfather would eventually be - it was a private internment) Adam and I went to the church. When we got there he got back on the phone to try and reschedule our flight. All flights from PGH to MKE were cancelled on Tuesday so we were rebooked on the 6am flight on Wednesday morning. The church had wi-fi so Adam brought his laptop in so we could find a hotel for the night.
On the bright side, this bought us more time since we didn't have to return the rental car until 5pm. We were able to drive back to Aunt Marilyn's house after lunch and visit for a while again. We left, got back to the airport just in time to return the car, got a shuttle to the hotel, and checked in. We ordered in dinner from an Italian place and ate in the breakfast area of the hotel. We had wake-up calls for 3:30 the next morning. Harsh. We were in bed by about 9, checking the weather before we shut the TV off.
In all honesty, I didn't expect our flight to go on Wednesday morning. We were up before our alarm went off. I checked the weather online and when I saw everything in the Fox Valley had been cancelled I thought we were doomed. The flight status still said "on time" though so we took the shuttle to the airport, went through security (Adam had checked in online and printed boarding passes the night before at the church) and went to the gate. There was a plane sitting at the gate when we got there. The pilot showed up a few minutes later, looked out the window and said "that's not our plane." He got on his phone to figure out where the plane he was supposed to fly was. As he was talking, the bigger plane showed up and parked at the gate next door. Apparently the plane at our gate was one that came in from Milwaukee last night and didn't go back. It was about half the size of the plane we were on so apparently they couldn't fly back into bad weather with it. The pilot promised us he'd get us back. We boarded, squished into our seats (we had been lucky on the flight out - it hadn't been full and we'd each gotten our own seat) and took off. It was a bumpy ride, but it's a short flight so it was doable. We landed in Milwaukee in the rain. We could see snow on the side of the runways, but nothing too bad. We deplaned, found our car, and headed north.
Eventually we hit the dividing line between the rain and the snow. By the time we got to Sheboygan Falls it was nasty. The plows hadn't gotten to the road by Dad and Cheryl's house yet so we got stuck turning onto the street and then stuck again turning into their driveway. Adam managed to get back onto the street but got stuck a third time. We saw the plow at the end of the road and decided to try and clear the driveway enough that we could pull back in and then wait for the plow to clear the street. At least I think that was the plan. Unfortunately their one-stage snow blower was no match for the foot of snow in the driveway. We had barely made a dent when the plow went by, clearing the other side of the street. We then changed game plans and went to work un-digging the car. We figured we'd follow the path created by the plow to get back to the main (already plowed) roads.
It took a while (and a really big shovel) but we got the wheels cleared out. By the time we were back in business the plow had gotten all the way back down to clear out the other road leading to the highway. We danced around a little with the plow (it was long and had four blades) but eventually made it back to highway 23. Which sucked. 23 is always horrible in the snow. We ended up in the middle of a line of semis, which was nice because they made a path for us, but was scary because, well, what if someone started to slip? Luckily it was slow going, but we got back to Fond du Lac safely. Highway 41 was a vast improvement and even though it had started to snow harder and was windy, even the Butte des Morts bridge wasn't too bad.
It was being met with 5 feet of snow at the end of our driveway that topped this trip off. We parked in front of the house, climbed through the snow (seriously, up to my chest), and suited up for winter. It was particularly harsh in that we had had no snow up until this blizzard. We saw grass when we left. No grass showing now!
Adam had tuned-up the snow blower before we left so that was a good thing. I unpacked while he cleared the driveway. Took awhile. And it was snowing again when he came inside. I was supposed to be back at work, but with the way things were going I decided to just scrap that idea. We spent the evening catching up on some DVR shows and going to bed early. We'd been up at 2:30, you know.
Thursday morning was back to work - and the scariest email inbox ever. Add to that the dangling ends of month-end and various "urgent" requests. Both Thursday and Friday were crazy-busy. I considered going into work today, but ultimately decided my sanity was more important. I have vacation scheduled next Friday and all of Christmas week. Hopefully I'll be caught up by then.
So, thus ends the adventure that was our trip to PA. Adam has a theory: my grandpa was notorius for not liking to travel. Perhaps this horrible trip was his way of trying to make us hate to travel too. Maybe our flight cancellation was his way of giving us more time to visit with relatives, while ultimately getting us back to where we needed to be. Who can say? All I know is I never want to go on a trip like this again. It sucked.
So now on to the rest of the stuff that has been going on this past week or so. As a somewhat ironic juxtaposition (tangent: every time I use that word I think of my 7th grade English teacher. It was a vocabulary word I just can't get out of my head.), as we were laughing our butts off at the comedy club, my grandfather was taking his leave. My dad called the house and my cell phone (which I had left at home) a little before we got home. We eventually connected to get the news I figured was coming.
Originally the funeral seemed like it would be the next weekend. This was fine with me as we weren't final for the month and I was still way behind because of the auditors. Then my dad called at about 4 on Friday afternoon to tell me the service was on Tuesday and we had to fly out Sunday afternoon. I managed to catch Katie and Mike right before he left for the day to give them the bad news. It was pretty much, "give us what you have and finish the rest when you get back." I stayed a little late to get as far as I could before I had to leave.
Adam got on the phone with my dad to make the flight and hotel arrangements. I admit I wasn't paying attention since I was feeding the cats and getting ready to go to dinner with my UWO acounting friends. Perhaps this is relevant. Up to intepretation I guess. He booked everything and we both left to go our separate ways for dinner.
Saturday was our party. I was busy from 7 until people showed up - and Adam's grandma and Sarah showed up an hour early. After everyone left I did a whole lot of dishes and managed to get everything cleaned up before heading to bed.
Sunday we were out the door before 10. We went down to Sheboygan Falls and picked up my dad and Cheryl. The drive to Milwaukee wasn't bad - nice that all the construction is done. We parked and went to check in. Here's where the fun began. All the Midwest computers were down - not just at Milwaukee, but nation-wide. So we couldn't check in online or at the kiosks in the airport. This meant there were lines. We got to an agent and he couldn't find our reservations. It took a minute and then he told us we had seats - on a flight on the 13th. We looked at our confirmation from Orbitz only to find that our entire trip - flight, hotel, and car - was booked for the 13-15th instead of the 6-8th.
So Adam got on the phone with Orbitz to try and get things changed. Now, I don't know who was to blame for the mix-up, and that's neither here nor there at this point, but Adam sure was the hero for getting things done. He was on the phone with some idiot from Orbitz for an hour and a half trying to get him to change our flight, hotel, and car. He was on hold for a great deal of that time and I can attest to the bad hold music. When he was told that the wait time for the Orbitz guy to talk to a Midwest rep was an hour and a half, my dad went to the agents at Milwaukee and thankfully they were sympathetic. The supervisor there switched our flights to the right weekend (without a change fee) and we moved on to security.
The lines there weren't bad, but Adam was still on the phone with Orbitz working on getting the hotel reservation changed and you can't go through security while talking on the phone. So we... loitered in the open area in front of the security lines. And it took a lot longer than I had expected for a guard to come over and ask us what we were doing. Finally Adam decided to chance it and put his phone - still on - in the tub and sent it through, hoping he'd still be on hold when it came back out the other side. Fate shone on us and that's exactly what happened. We made it through without a problem and headed to the gate. As we were boarding Adam got the confirmation that our hotel had been changed and the car had been cancelled. He booked a different car as we were sitting on the plane at the gate.
We arrived in Pittsburgh on time, deplaned, and headed to the rental car desk. We got the Hyundai Sonata Adam wanted, got situated, and headed to the hotel. We had decided to stay at the same hotel, the Super 8, that we had stayed at in August. It was decent and had good proximity to food and the places we'd be going. We got there only to find out that our reservation had been declined. There was some confusion - we'd booked through Orbitz, but they were trying to get payment from Priceline. While they tried to figure it out we went to dinner at Max & Erma's. About halfway through our meal we got a call from the hotel saying they'd fixed it and we were good to go. After we indulged in some of their famous fresh-baked cookies we went back to check in. For some reason, even though we had booked two of the same room, they had given us one king and one double room. Luckily the person working at the desk suggested that one of us take the handicap room since no one had requested it for the days we'd be there. We got to our rooms, dropped off our stuff, and headed over to Aunt Marilyn's house to visit with everyone for a little while before calling it a night.
Monday morning we met my dad and Cheryl downstairs in the breakfast room. It was unimpressive and Cheryl suggested we go to King's - she'd seen a TV ad that they had $3.99 breakfast meals. So we went back to the room for our coats and headed out. After a very tasty breakfast we headed to Marshalls - Adam was in search of a new pair of pants. While he was unsuccessful, I did find some cute Christmas socks. We then went back to the hotel to wait for Evan to arrive. His flight had been delayed in Cincinnati so we decided to go to lunch and wait for him there.
We stopped by Aunt Marilyn's house first to pick up my grandma's wheelchair and then went to Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse. Adam was pumped at the opportunity to have sushi again. I was happy to see they had forks. Evan arrived 10-15 minutes later and he, my dad, and Cheryl had hibachi while Adam had sushi and I had teriyaki chicken. After we were done Evan headed over to check into the hotel and take a shower (and, I suspect, a nap) and the rest of us headed to the funeral home.
The visitation was from 2-8, which everyone agreed was a long time. We stayed from 1:30 until a little after 4. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing and I was just uncomfortable with the whole thing. I can't imagine what it must have been like for my grandma, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend 6 hours sitting next to a dead body. After we left we called my brother to make sure he could bring my dad and Cheryl back with him and then we took a nap and watched some TV. They returned around 8:45 and we went to Eat 'N Park for dinner. Cute place.
We met the next morning, checked out, and went to King's again for breakfast. Our waitress the previous morning had left halfway through our meal because she aggravated a knee injury. She wasn't there on Tuesday and apparently was out indefinitely. Yikes. After another nice meal we made a Starbucks run before heading out to the funeral home again. This time we were a little late, but still beat Aunt Marilyn. :)
The service itself was in the chapel. It began with a military service conducted by the local retired service members. They shot rifles and everything. I may not support what we're doing in parts of the world, but it's hard not to be moved when service people salute a fallen comrade. On the other hand, at the luncheon at Oakhill Church after the service, my grandma said that my grandpa would not have liked that part of the service. He was a veteran, yes, but he was drafted, he didn't volunteer, and his lack of discussion on the topic would seem to indicate his attitude toward his service days was not a positive one.
After the military part was done, my Uncle John officiated the rest of the service. Both he and Aunt Marilyn gave eulogies along with a short, but heartfelt addition from my Uncle Paul. My dad played the piano. It was tough, but for the most part uplifting. I've been lucky in life and this was the first funeral for a family member and only the third funeral I've attended, ever. I guess I just don't know how to react in these situations. It's hard to sit there and listen when my ideology is so different from the beliefs that make the whole thing bearable to most everyone around me. I respect what they need and I don't want to be disrespectful, but at the same time I can't say things I don't mean. It's a difficult thing.
Anyway. After the service I made myself useful by helping clean up the myriad of pictures and flowers in the visitation room. We got them all loaded into Lori and Dave's van. As we prepared to drive to the church for the lunch Adam checked our flight status. We knew the weather in Milwaukee was supposed to be evil, but when he said our flight was cancelled I initially thought he was joking. As my brother, dad, and Cheryl went to see where my great-grandparents were (and where my grandfather would eventually be - it was a private internment) Adam and I went to the church. When we got there he got back on the phone to try and reschedule our flight. All flights from PGH to MKE were cancelled on Tuesday so we were rebooked on the 6am flight on Wednesday morning. The church had wi-fi so Adam brought his laptop in so we could find a hotel for the night.
On the bright side, this bought us more time since we didn't have to return the rental car until 5pm. We were able to drive back to Aunt Marilyn's house after lunch and visit for a while again. We left, got back to the airport just in time to return the car, got a shuttle to the hotel, and checked in. We ordered in dinner from an Italian place and ate in the breakfast area of the hotel. We had wake-up calls for 3:30 the next morning. Harsh. We were in bed by about 9, checking the weather before we shut the TV off.
In all honesty, I didn't expect our flight to go on Wednesday morning. We were up before our alarm went off. I checked the weather online and when I saw everything in the Fox Valley had been cancelled I thought we were doomed. The flight status still said "on time" though so we took the shuttle to the airport, went through security (Adam had checked in online and printed boarding passes the night before at the church) and went to the gate. There was a plane sitting at the gate when we got there. The pilot showed up a few minutes later, looked out the window and said "that's not our plane." He got on his phone to figure out where the plane he was supposed to fly was. As he was talking, the bigger plane showed up and parked at the gate next door. Apparently the plane at our gate was one that came in from Milwaukee last night and didn't go back. It was about half the size of the plane we were on so apparently they couldn't fly back into bad weather with it. The pilot promised us he'd get us back. We boarded, squished into our seats (we had been lucky on the flight out - it hadn't been full and we'd each gotten our own seat) and took off. It was a bumpy ride, but it's a short flight so it was doable. We landed in Milwaukee in the rain. We could see snow on the side of the runways, but nothing too bad. We deplaned, found our car, and headed north.
Eventually we hit the dividing line between the rain and the snow. By the time we got to Sheboygan Falls it was nasty. The plows hadn't gotten to the road by Dad and Cheryl's house yet so we got stuck turning onto the street and then stuck again turning into their driveway. Adam managed to get back onto the street but got stuck a third time. We saw the plow at the end of the road and decided to try and clear the driveway enough that we could pull back in and then wait for the plow to clear the street. At least I think that was the plan. Unfortunately their one-stage snow blower was no match for the foot of snow in the driveway. We had barely made a dent when the plow went by, clearing the other side of the street. We then changed game plans and went to work un-digging the car. We figured we'd follow the path created by the plow to get back to the main (already plowed) roads.
It took a while (and a really big shovel) but we got the wheels cleared out. By the time we were back in business the plow had gotten all the way back down to clear out the other road leading to the highway. We danced around a little with the plow (it was long and had four blades) but eventually made it back to highway 23. Which sucked. 23 is always horrible in the snow. We ended up in the middle of a line of semis, which was nice because they made a path for us, but was scary because, well, what if someone started to slip? Luckily it was slow going, but we got back to Fond du Lac safely. Highway 41 was a vast improvement and even though it had started to snow harder and was windy, even the Butte des Morts bridge wasn't too bad.
It was being met with 5 feet of snow at the end of our driveway that topped this trip off. We parked in front of the house, climbed through the snow (seriously, up to my chest), and suited up for winter. It was particularly harsh in that we had had no snow up until this blizzard. We saw grass when we left. No grass showing now!
Adam had tuned-up the snow blower before we left so that was a good thing. I unpacked while he cleared the driveway. Took awhile. And it was snowing again when he came inside. I was supposed to be back at work, but with the way things were going I decided to just scrap that idea. We spent the evening catching up on some DVR shows and going to bed early. We'd been up at 2:30, you know.
Thursday morning was back to work - and the scariest email inbox ever. Add to that the dangling ends of month-end and various "urgent" requests. Both Thursday and Friday were crazy-busy. I considered going into work today, but ultimately decided my sanity was more important. I have vacation scheduled next Friday and all of Christmas week. Hopefully I'll be caught up by then.
So, thus ends the adventure that was our trip to PA. Adam has a theory: my grandpa was notorius for not liking to travel. Perhaps this horrible trip was his way of trying to make us hate to travel too. Maybe our flight cancellation was his way of giving us more time to visit with relatives, while ultimately getting us back to where we needed to be. Who can say? All I know is I never want to go on a trip like this again. It sucked.
Christmas Party 2009
We had a decent turnout - maybe 20 people - which makes it hard to say we won't do it again. The hit of the party was our new Keurig coffee maker:
So easy, not too ridiculously expensive.
I didn't make as much food as I had last year (although I did manage to blow a circuit and completely fry a surge protector. Whoops.) and most of the leftovers we did have were taken by Chris and Sarah. We just have a lot of cookies. I mean, dozens. I'll probably take them to work this coming week before they get too stale.
All told, a success. We'll have to see where things are when we determine if we do this again next year.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I will return...
I'll be back soon. After I clean up the chaos of unexpected vacation from work during month-end and a blizzard.
No, really.
No, really.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Deceptively Clean
The dishes are pretty much the only evidence...
that I spent four hours this evening baking (by my estimate, about 13 dozen) cookies and making puppy chow.
If it's even possible, this week has been worse than I expected. Worked 6:30-4:30 on Monday, spending most of that time on my feet, walking around the plant (probably walked 5 miles - at least) with auditors only to spend another hour and a half on my feet at bell practice. Worked 6:30 to 6:30 on Tuesday. Worked 6:30 to 4:10ish today. Been working through lunch every day, am still behind, auditors still emailing me, and now my stomach hates me. Shocking.
But I will prevail. There's no way my stupid digestive system or job will keep me from going to see Mitch Fatel tomorrow night.
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