The Good: After "forgetting" about our lawyer bill from last December for a few months, we got a follow up letter offering to consider it paid in full - at a discount of 30%. Hmmm. If I knew that not paying your bills for 5 months would result in a 30% reduction in what you owe I'd be paying late all the time. Then again, perhaps that's not the best strategy. In my defense, I wasn't sure the letter we got back in December was actually a bill. It didn't have a remit-to or due date. So, hey, why pay it if it's not due yet, right? Then it got buried on the computer desk. Yeah. But we'll pay it now. Honest. (Evil voice in head: but what if you wait another couple of months and they knock even more off? Muahahahaha!)
The Bad: It was inventory day. That's never a good thing. And I was totally crabby all afternoon, threatening my computer with death and my file folders with being thrown across my cube. It was not a pretty sight.
Which brings me to The Ugly: Carly peed all over one of the cat mats tonight. Of course I didn't realize this until I had picked her up, thereby drenching myself in cat pee. She had also managed to waltz all around the cat room with her wet paws. Fabulous. I put some pet odor carpet stuff down and vacuumed it up so hopefully the pee smell won't linger. Then it was bath time for Carly, which she LOVED. Not. Adam and I both got wet and scratched and now she's sulking up on top of the fridge. Well, see Carly? If you didn't refuse to pee in your damn litterbox you wouldn't get dunked in the sink. Duh.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Because sometimes we all need to see some cute cat pictures...
From the back:
From the front:
Adorable dangling paw:
Sunbathing:
Hmm, just noticed there are no Carly pictures. Wonder why that is? Oh, I know! Because she's a perpetually crabby kitty!
From the front:
Adorable dangling paw:
Sunbathing:
Hmm, just noticed there are no Carly pictures. Wonder why that is? Oh, I know! Because she's a perpetually crabby kitty!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Slacker-age
I was going to post something on Thursday but then I got home and we went out to dinner and I completely forgot. Bad Martha.
Anyway, the week was a good one. I had IMA on Tuesday. It was a tour this month at the post office. I would have loved to go on it, but I didn't think it would be possible to go on the tour (that would inevitably run late) and still get everything organized over at the Hilton for dinner. I was right. The tour went to 6:15. Dinner was at 6:30. I got completely swamped but luckily I had prepared as much as I could for that. The dinner was great - a buffet, something different than our usual. I got a lot of good feedback about that. Too bad the venue nickels and dimes you to death with set-up fees and A/V charges. *sigh* That's definitely something we'll have to be talking about at our summer board meetings. We might have to hike up our dinner prices if people prefer a nicer meal/venue. One more meeting for the season left.
Wednesday was pretty non-descript. Thursday I was going to make a chicken-tomato pasta but Adam really wasn't into that. So we went to Bao Ju instead. Wonderful crab rangoon. Great food, atmosphere. Our server definitely wasn't Asian, but we weren't sure where he was from. I guessed somewhere in South/Central America while Adam though he had more of a Ukrainian/Eastern European accent. Anyway, a good meal and I'd definitely recommend it.
Friday was a good day. I was charged with the task of completing the tax books for all five plants this year. I was pretty much done with four of them and had just requested some information from the plant for the fifth. I then learned that they had already completed all but 7 schedules. Yipee! Unfortunately I'm still left with the tax inventory adjustment (argh, I hate that one so much!) but it's better than having to do them all. This makes this coming week much easier to handle. I was concerned I'd end up running out of time trying to finish all the tax stuff while prepping for another month-end. Whew.
This weekend was a wet one. It's rained a lot, but that's a good thing. We needed it. The grass is finally getting a nice green color. And the birds were out en force, driving the cats totally nuts. Even Carly got in hunting mode for a few minutes yesterday. Maybe the primal force of nature will draw the cats together. Ha. Not holding my breath.
We did a bunch of shopping both yesterday and today. We stopped at the new Panera Bread for lunch. I had a soup/sandwich combo. The soup was a little salty (which is pretty much the norm) and the bread for the sandwich was so dense it kind of sank like a rock in my stomach. Overall it was good, but I don't know that I'll be a regular customer. I don't really like bread in the first place, and Erbert and Gerbert's is still my number one sandwich place.
This afternoon Adam mopped the floor while I watched The Reader. I really liked this movie. It might be up there in my top picks from this year. I think The Visitor is still my favorite so far, but this one is close. So I'm up to 17 watched on my list. I know Adam's itching to see The Wrestler so I'll probably try and swap it out tomorrow on my way home from bells.
Nothing much on the docket for this week. Inventory on Thursday to start another month-end. This one should be interesting. All the key users will be out in training so I'm pretty much on my own. I'm also responsible for financials this month for the North plant. I haven't really been involved in financials since I got moved to North from Corporate back in May of 2006 so it should be a different experience.
Anyway, the week was a good one. I had IMA on Tuesday. It was a tour this month at the post office. I would have loved to go on it, but I didn't think it would be possible to go on the tour (that would inevitably run late) and still get everything organized over at the Hilton for dinner. I was right. The tour went to 6:15. Dinner was at 6:30. I got completely swamped but luckily I had prepared as much as I could for that. The dinner was great - a buffet, something different than our usual. I got a lot of good feedback about that. Too bad the venue nickels and dimes you to death with set-up fees and A/V charges. *sigh* That's definitely something we'll have to be talking about at our summer board meetings. We might have to hike up our dinner prices if people prefer a nicer meal/venue. One more meeting for the season left.
Wednesday was pretty non-descript. Thursday I was going to make a chicken-tomato pasta but Adam really wasn't into that. So we went to Bao Ju instead. Wonderful crab rangoon. Great food, atmosphere. Our server definitely wasn't Asian, but we weren't sure where he was from. I guessed somewhere in South/Central America while Adam though he had more of a Ukrainian/Eastern European accent. Anyway, a good meal and I'd definitely recommend it.
Friday was a good day. I was charged with the task of completing the tax books for all five plants this year. I was pretty much done with four of them and had just requested some information from the plant for the fifth. I then learned that they had already completed all but 7 schedules. Yipee! Unfortunately I'm still left with the tax inventory adjustment (argh, I hate that one so much!) but it's better than having to do them all. This makes this coming week much easier to handle. I was concerned I'd end up running out of time trying to finish all the tax stuff while prepping for another month-end. Whew.
This weekend was a wet one. It's rained a lot, but that's a good thing. We needed it. The grass is finally getting a nice green color. And the birds were out en force, driving the cats totally nuts. Even Carly got in hunting mode for a few minutes yesterday. Maybe the primal force of nature will draw the cats together. Ha. Not holding my breath.
We did a bunch of shopping both yesterday and today. We stopped at the new Panera Bread for lunch. I had a soup/sandwich combo. The soup was a little salty (which is pretty much the norm) and the bread for the sandwich was so dense it kind of sank like a rock in my stomach. Overall it was good, but I don't know that I'll be a regular customer. I don't really like bread in the first place, and Erbert and Gerbert's is still my number one sandwich place.
This afternoon Adam mopped the floor while I watched The Reader. I really liked this movie. It might be up there in my top picks from this year. I think The Visitor is still my favorite so far, but this one is close. So I'm up to 17 watched on my list. I know Adam's itching to see The Wrestler so I'll probably try and swap it out tomorrow on my way home from bells.
Nothing much on the docket for this week. Inventory on Thursday to start another month-end. This one should be interesting. All the key users will be out in training so I'm pretty much on my own. I'm also responsible for financials this month for the North plant. I haven't really been involved in financials since I got moved to North from Corporate back in May of 2006 so it should be a different experience.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Seriously. I have no title. Really. Nothing.
I should just resign myself to the fact that I suck at this.
Anywho, Easter was ok. Cheryl called on Saturday to invite us down there for lunch after my dad apparently read my previous post and saw we weren't doing anything. Adam planned a day of golf and ribs so we opted out. Too bad since they were going to be playing games and such. Adam's family is not into games too much. They play cards, but nothing like the wild and crazy times we had in my family. It could get downright violent when we played Pit. Anyway, I went to church to play bells. Spent the afternoon alternating between watching golf in the living room and doing other things around the house. Dinner was great.
The week was nothing too interesting. I didn't have bell practice on Monday so we did some shopping and went out to dinner instead. Friday I was up at 4am and picked up by 5 to get to Rockford for the IMA regional leadership training seminar. It was a good day. Good speakers, a great breakout session. It was fun to meet and speak with reps from other chapters. It's discouraging that we all seem to have the same declining attendance problem, but was good to brainstorm with a larger group. I got back home later than I anticipated and was ready for bed almost immediately.
Yesterday we did our usual shopping and then caught an early movie, Observe and Report. Not your usual Seth Rogan comedy. Not really too much a comedy at all actually. Yes, there are definitely some funny parts, but in the end it just makes you uncomfortable in some respect about police and gun control. After stopping at Sam's we came back home and caught up on some DVR shows. Dinner. Bed.
This morning we watched Slumdog Millionaire. I had talked with some ladies at the conference on Friday about it so I was looking forward to seeing it. That said, I'm not sure it really should have won all those awards. I haven't seen all the movies on the list yet, but I don't know that this would be my favorite. It has a good plot, good acting, interesting music. I don't know. Just something off for me. But it was a good movie. I guess that's what matters. The fact that the climax involved Dumas (one of my favorites - I even read The Three Muskateers in French!) was kind of a bonus as well. (Hmm, hopefully that's not a spoiler. Wasn't meant to be.)
After that we went shopping again. This time for clothes. JC Penney had some good sales and we also managed to hit their family and friends 20% off event day as well. Sweet. I found some shirts and Adam discovered they have a big and tall section. We also stopped at Catherine's (a store) and I found a dress for Catherine's (the roommate) wedding. The rest of the afternoon was spent zonked in front of the TV. Adam made another good dinner and now I'm catching up online. A little. Or at least trying to.
Adam also reminded me that I forgot to post a picture of the shed and new trees out back:
A bit of irony this weekend on that subject. The shed in the neighbor's yard that we got the trees to block? They knocked it down. Ha.
Also spotted this weekend?
A cute bunny! Let me tell you, the cats are loving spring!
Anywho, Easter was ok. Cheryl called on Saturday to invite us down there for lunch after my dad apparently read my previous post and saw we weren't doing anything. Adam planned a day of golf and ribs so we opted out. Too bad since they were going to be playing games and such. Adam's family is not into games too much. They play cards, but nothing like the wild and crazy times we had in my family. It could get downright violent when we played Pit. Anyway, I went to church to play bells. Spent the afternoon alternating between watching golf in the living room and doing other things around the house. Dinner was great.
The week was nothing too interesting. I didn't have bell practice on Monday so we did some shopping and went out to dinner instead. Friday I was up at 4am and picked up by 5 to get to Rockford for the IMA regional leadership training seminar. It was a good day. Good speakers, a great breakout session. It was fun to meet and speak with reps from other chapters. It's discouraging that we all seem to have the same declining attendance problem, but was good to brainstorm with a larger group. I got back home later than I anticipated and was ready for bed almost immediately.
Yesterday we did our usual shopping and then caught an early movie, Observe and Report. Not your usual Seth Rogan comedy. Not really too much a comedy at all actually. Yes, there are definitely some funny parts, but in the end it just makes you uncomfortable in some respect about police and gun control. After stopping at Sam's we came back home and caught up on some DVR shows. Dinner. Bed.
This morning we watched Slumdog Millionaire. I had talked with some ladies at the conference on Friday about it so I was looking forward to seeing it. That said, I'm not sure it really should have won all those awards. I haven't seen all the movies on the list yet, but I don't know that this would be my favorite. It has a good plot, good acting, interesting music. I don't know. Just something off for me. But it was a good movie. I guess that's what matters. The fact that the climax involved Dumas (one of my favorites - I even read The Three Muskateers in French!) was kind of a bonus as well. (Hmm, hopefully that's not a spoiler. Wasn't meant to be.)
After that we went shopping again. This time for clothes. JC Penney had some good sales and we also managed to hit their family and friends 20% off event day as well. Sweet. I found some shirts and Adam discovered they have a big and tall section. We also stopped at Catherine's (a store) and I found a dress for Catherine's (the roommate) wedding. The rest of the afternoon was spent zonked in front of the TV. Adam made another good dinner and now I'm catching up online. A little. Or at least trying to.
Adam also reminded me that I forgot to post a picture of the shed and new trees out back:
A bit of irony this weekend on that subject. The shed in the neighbor's yard that we got the trees to block? They knocked it down. Ha.
Also spotted this weekend?
A cute bunny! Let me tell you, the cats are loving spring!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Another Two Week Long Void
Good grief. Sometimes I get so far behind I wonder if it’s even worth backtracking to catch up. But here’s the Cliff Notes version of the past two weeks…
Saturday the 28th we went down to Sheboygan for their Sipping on the Shores wine and beer tasting. I’d never been to Blue Harbor OR a beer/wine tasting so I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was going to be crowded. My dad and Cheryl went last year and had warned us. It was crowded. And hot. And mostly beer. But we braved the insanity and stopped at the vendors we wanted to try. We discovered a new cranberry wine and a nice Riesling. We had some wonderful spinach dip from one of the local restaurants. We bought a few bottles on the way out and then we escaped. We lasted just over an hour. We’re not meant for crowds. I was surprised that it was Adam who instigated our bailing. It’s usually me who cracks first. But this left us with some time to kill before dinner. We drove to one of the local breweries (well, if you consider Cedarburg local) and Adam picked up a case of blonde root beer that they hadn’t been selling on site. We stopped at the Victorian Chocolate Shoppe and got some truffles (yum!) We then bummed around the bar inside Brisco County until everyone else showed up. They were running late (of course) but once everyone arrived it was a nice time. Unfortunately the weather turned ugly and we bailed on the second part of the evening in an effort to avoid the worst part of the snowstorm. It was pretty crappy around Fond du Lac but we made it home in one piece. Fed the hungry cats and went to bed.
Sunday Adam made another great dinner. The rest of that week is pretty much a blur. Yay for inventory.
Last weekend Adam took down the ugly/dying trees in the backyard. His dad came over on Saturday and they rented the stump grinder again. Then they put together the shed we bought to get some of the stuff out of the garage. I spent the weekend shopping, cleaning, and sleeping. I started to get a cold on Friday. Monday was miserable. I stayed home on Tuesday. I feel much better now.
I got a haircut yesterday. Adam planted three trees by the shed. Not sure what the weekend holds yet.
Movie-wise, I watched Milk on Sunday while Adam was with Anton and David watching Wrestlemania. Interesting movie, but I wonder why it took so long to get made? It’s certainly relevant. Zack and Miri was in there somewhere. Your typical fluff, but I still liked it. I watched A Beautiful Mind again when Adam was out on Saturday night. I always forget how good that movie is until I watch it again. We watched Role Models last night. Another somewhat silly movie, but fun.
This weekend is Easter. The bells play on Sunday but that’s really about all we’ve got going on. Adam’s family isn’t doing anything. My family isn’t doing anything. And we aren’t doing anything. I’ve eaten enough chocolate already though. I love chocolate bunnies. Mmm.
We just got the invite for Catherine and Tony's wedding so we're looking forward to that. Things are falling into place for our August trip so that's good as well. We finalized the date of our summer cookout so if you're in the area on June 20th, stop by for a burger. Official invites will be emailed or posted soon.
That's about all for now. I need to go blow my nose again. It's ridiculous how much snot can be up there. The human body is baffling.
Saturday the 28th we went down to Sheboygan for their Sipping on the Shores wine and beer tasting. I’d never been to Blue Harbor OR a beer/wine tasting so I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was going to be crowded. My dad and Cheryl went last year and had warned us. It was crowded. And hot. And mostly beer. But we braved the insanity and stopped at the vendors we wanted to try. We discovered a new cranberry wine and a nice Riesling. We had some wonderful spinach dip from one of the local restaurants. We bought a few bottles on the way out and then we escaped. We lasted just over an hour. We’re not meant for crowds. I was surprised that it was Adam who instigated our bailing. It’s usually me who cracks first. But this left us with some time to kill before dinner. We drove to one of the local breweries (well, if you consider Cedarburg local) and Adam picked up a case of blonde root beer that they hadn’t been selling on site. We stopped at the Victorian Chocolate Shoppe and got some truffles (yum!) We then bummed around the bar inside Brisco County until everyone else showed up. They were running late (of course) but once everyone arrived it was a nice time. Unfortunately the weather turned ugly and we bailed on the second part of the evening in an effort to avoid the worst part of the snowstorm. It was pretty crappy around Fond du Lac but we made it home in one piece. Fed the hungry cats and went to bed.
Sunday Adam made another great dinner. The rest of that week is pretty much a blur. Yay for inventory.
Last weekend Adam took down the ugly/dying trees in the backyard. His dad came over on Saturday and they rented the stump grinder again. Then they put together the shed we bought to get some of the stuff out of the garage. I spent the weekend shopping, cleaning, and sleeping. I started to get a cold on Friday. Monday was miserable. I stayed home on Tuesday. I feel much better now.
I got a haircut yesterday. Adam planted three trees by the shed. Not sure what the weekend holds yet.
Movie-wise, I watched Milk on Sunday while Adam was with Anton and David watching Wrestlemania. Interesting movie, but I wonder why it took so long to get made? It’s certainly relevant. Zack and Miri was in there somewhere. Your typical fluff, but I still liked it. I watched A Beautiful Mind again when Adam was out on Saturday night. I always forget how good that movie is until I watch it again. We watched Role Models last night. Another somewhat silly movie, but fun.
This weekend is Easter. The bells play on Sunday but that’s really about all we’ve got going on. Adam’s family isn’t doing anything. My family isn’t doing anything. And we aren’t doing anything. I’ve eaten enough chocolate already though. I love chocolate bunnies. Mmm.
We just got the invite for Catherine and Tony's wedding so we're looking forward to that. Things are falling into place for our August trip so that's good as well. We finalized the date of our summer cookout so if you're in the area on June 20th, stop by for a burger. Official invites will be emailed or posted soon.
That's about all for now. I need to go blow my nose again. It's ridiculous how much snot can be up there. The human body is baffling.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
When the Wait is Over...
We didn't have bell rehearsal last week as we were going to be missing at least three people and it didn't seem worthwhile to get everyone else together with so many holes. Nancy called on Friday to give a Julie update. She had been moved to the hospice unit, was on morphine and oxygen and largely unresponsive. They were talking hours, days.
She died this morning.
While not unexpected, it's still not something you want to hear. She was one of the founding members of the bell choir. It defined her as much as she defined it. I only stood next to her for a few months but I could see how she was liked by so many. She was full of life. She loved her work and had so many stories about the kids she taught in her classes.
But now we'll be preparing for a funeral. It's a little frightening. I've been exceedingly lucky in life and have only been to one funeral. We anticipate we'll be ringing, but we'll have to see.
But for now, I prefer to remember her this way, at our 25th anniversary concert last year. She's next to me, second from the right.
She died this morning.
While not unexpected, it's still not something you want to hear. She was one of the founding members of the bell choir. It defined her as much as she defined it. I only stood next to her for a few months but I could see how she was liked by so many. She was full of life. She loved her work and had so many stories about the kids she taught in her classes.
But now we'll be preparing for a funeral. It's a little frightening. I've been exceedingly lucky in life and have only been to one funeral. We anticipate we'll be ringing, but we'll have to see.
But for now, I prefer to remember her this way, at our 25th anniversary concert last year. She's next to me, second from the right.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Yawn
Sorry I suck about keeping up to date with this. It's been a long week.
Saturday we did shopping. I took a nap. We watched Cadillac Records. I was bored for most of the movie. Jazz/Blues is not my thing. It all sounds the same to me. But I watched it. That’s what counts. Not a lot else happened.
Sunday Adam went to work bright and early and despite my plan to sleep in, I found myself up and making breakfast about ten minutes after he left. Stupid cats. I read the paper, cleaned up in the kitchen and pet room. Laundry. Some work. Shower. TV. Adam got home after noon and we spent the afternoon in the living room. He watched racing, I took a nap on the loveseat. Lazy days, I tell you. I made brownies. He made a spectacular dinner.
We got the rebalancing of our escrow account for this year. As I expected, we overpaid last year since our taxes and insurance bills went down. They sent a check for the difference and I cashed it and to pad the checking account rather than send it back to apply to next year. This also means the escrow payments for this coming year will be lower than last years’. But I plan to stick with the payment we’re doing now and throw the difference toward the principal. Our auto insurance renews in April as well and mine went up but Adam’s went down. I don’t understand that, but in total we went down something like $2. *sigh* I also got a notice that starting with my next paycheck the “Making Work Pay” credit will be in effect so we’ll see how much that impacts my net take-home.
Oh, and JP Morgan FINALLY relented and changed my address. They’d been sending things to my PO Box despite repeated efforts to get them to change their system. I closed my PO Box in October of 2007. There’s speedy service for you. *sigh* again.
Anyway, this week was boring, yet exhausting. Absolutely nothing going on. But tomorrow we’ll be heading down to Sheboygan for a wine and beer tasting at Blue Harbor. Should be interesting. I’ve never been there. After that we’re getting together with some people from the area together for a bit. Some people I haven’t seen since high school. It's hard to gather people up anymore. Everyone seems to be so busy these days.
We’re in the process of planning a trip eastward in mid-August. Planned stops include Cranberry (to visit grandparents), Hershey (mmm, chocolate), Jamestown (to visit mom), Buffalo (to meet with one of Adam’s former co-workers), Niagara Falls (hey, why not?), Marineland (otherwise known as the park whose logo is two whales humping), and Kalamazoo (well, really just because it’s halfway home from Canada.) So far things are working out well. It’s a lot easier to plan things when the majority of the stops are not dependent on other peoples’ availability.
With that, I say it's time to go to sleep. If I can convince the stupid cat to come down from on top of the fridge. *sigh*
Saturday we did shopping. I took a nap. We watched Cadillac Records. I was bored for most of the movie. Jazz/Blues is not my thing. It all sounds the same to me. But I watched it. That’s what counts. Not a lot else happened.
Sunday Adam went to work bright and early and despite my plan to sleep in, I found myself up and making breakfast about ten minutes after he left. Stupid cats. I read the paper, cleaned up in the kitchen and pet room. Laundry. Some work. Shower. TV. Adam got home after noon and we spent the afternoon in the living room. He watched racing, I took a nap on the loveseat. Lazy days, I tell you. I made brownies. He made a spectacular dinner.
We got the rebalancing of our escrow account for this year. As I expected, we overpaid last year since our taxes and insurance bills went down. They sent a check for the difference and I cashed it and to pad the checking account rather than send it back to apply to next year. This also means the escrow payments for this coming year will be lower than last years’. But I plan to stick with the payment we’re doing now and throw the difference toward the principal. Our auto insurance renews in April as well and mine went up but Adam’s went down. I don’t understand that, but in total we went down something like $2. *sigh* I also got a notice that starting with my next paycheck the “Making Work Pay” credit will be in effect so we’ll see how much that impacts my net take-home.
Oh, and JP Morgan FINALLY relented and changed my address. They’d been sending things to my PO Box despite repeated efforts to get them to change their system. I closed my PO Box in October of 2007. There’s speedy service for you. *sigh* again.
Anyway, this week was boring, yet exhausting. Absolutely nothing going on. But tomorrow we’ll be heading down to Sheboygan for a wine and beer tasting at Blue Harbor. Should be interesting. I’ve never been there. After that we’re getting together with some people from the area together for a bit. Some people I haven’t seen since high school. It's hard to gather people up anymore. Everyone seems to be so busy these days.
We’re in the process of planning a trip eastward in mid-August. Planned stops include Cranberry (to visit grandparents), Hershey (mmm, chocolate), Jamestown (to visit mom), Buffalo (to meet with one of Adam’s former co-workers), Niagara Falls (hey, why not?), Marineland (otherwise known as the park whose logo is two whales humping), and Kalamazoo (well, really just because it’s halfway home from Canada.) So far things are working out well. It’s a lot easier to plan things when the majority of the stops are not dependent on other peoples’ availability.
With that, I say it's time to go to sleep. If I can convince the stupid cat to come down from on top of the fridge. *sigh*
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Another Week Flies By
Last Friday I got home and just didn’t want to deal with dinner. The menu had shrimp stuffed mushrooms on it which means not only would I make those, but then I’d have to figure out what I wanted to eat myself. My brain was too tired for that. So I suggested we go out. We had coupons for The Greenville Station so we invited his parents out with us. It’s a cute place – used to be an old train station (among other things.) They all had fish and I had chicken. It was ok, but I’m not sure we’d go back.
Saturday morning we went shopping and stocked up on kitty litter at Copps. I’m sure other shoppers thought we were nuts when Adam pulled into line with an entire shopping cart full of it. But we have four cats. They poop. A lot. And when it’s on sale, we stock up. Same goes for dry food. I made the mushrooms that were supposed to be Friday’s dinner for Saturday’s lunch. We watched Changeling. (Eh. Long movie. Too much of Angeline Jolie looking devastated and crying.) Adam put up the new blinds in the cat room and stained the trim.
Sunday morning I went to church since the bells were ringing. Adam went to work. I came home and worked a few hours myself. Did some cleaning. When Adam got home he finished the work in the cat room. We caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Watched golf. Adam made brats on the grill for dinner. And McCain smiles. We like them.
Monday was a busy day at work for me. Then I had bell practice. In another bad turn, our member with cancer, while still in a nursing home, had to be in the hospital for a little while. Nothing seems to be working anymore but she refused being put in a hospice unit since it meant she could no longer receive anything but palliative care. She will be starting her fourth or fifth round of chemo even though no one really expects it to do any good. Those members who have visited her recently report that her coordination has really deteriorated and the spark has left her eyes. It’s discouraging. We’ve already begun discussions about whether we’d want to ring, should the need arise. Just a bummer all around. Kind of interesting how Catherine (the sister) recently posted about being the bearer of this kind of news to patients...
Alrighty. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day and also the night of my monthly IMA meeting. It was our annual energy meeting at the Fin ‘n’ Feather. The weather was gorgeous and we joked that we should have booked a boat tour. The speakers were ok, although there was a lot of duplication. The bar downstairs must have been hopping because it got very smoky upstairs by where we were. The board of directors for next year was approved by the chapter so now in addition to my Director of Attendance, Meetings, and Nametags hats I’ll be wearing the VP Membership hat as well. I plan to go to the regional leadership training in April so we’ll see if I get any new ideas from that.
That night Adam was complaining about itchy eyes. I suggested perhaps he had pinkeye (it had been going around my office a while back.) I was kind of joking, but when I got up to take Carly to the bathroom around 1AM (don’t even get me started on that) he was in the office on the computer, self-diagnosing. I took a look at his eyes Wednesday morning and it looked like that was it. He stopped by the eye doctor during lunch, they confirmed, and gave him a prescription for eye drops. He's much improved, but let’s hope I don’t get it!
Wednesday night entailed a lot of catch-up as most weeks with IMA meetings do. Cleaning, DVR. Adam had Thursday and today off. For the weekend, we’ve got Cadillac Records waiting to be watched. Shopping. Cleaning. We'll see what happens.
And now, some kitty pictures. You know you love them.
Carly's new favorite spot
That's right. ON TOP of the refrigerator. Usually inside Adam's lunchbox.
Sigh
Then I caught JC standing in the huge teacup. Heh.
And I don't think I even want to know what was going on with this poor reindeer toy.
Saturday morning we went shopping and stocked up on kitty litter at Copps. I’m sure other shoppers thought we were nuts when Adam pulled into line with an entire shopping cart full of it. But we have four cats. They poop. A lot. And when it’s on sale, we stock up. Same goes for dry food. I made the mushrooms that were supposed to be Friday’s dinner for Saturday’s lunch. We watched Changeling. (Eh. Long movie. Too much of Angeline Jolie looking devastated and crying.) Adam put up the new blinds in the cat room and stained the trim.
Sunday morning I went to church since the bells were ringing. Adam went to work. I came home and worked a few hours myself. Did some cleaning. When Adam got home he finished the work in the cat room. We caught up on Jimmy Fallon. Watched golf. Adam made brats on the grill for dinner. And McCain smiles. We like them.
Monday was a busy day at work for me. Then I had bell practice. In another bad turn, our member with cancer, while still in a nursing home, had to be in the hospital for a little while. Nothing seems to be working anymore but she refused being put in a hospice unit since it meant she could no longer receive anything but palliative care. She will be starting her fourth or fifth round of chemo even though no one really expects it to do any good. Those members who have visited her recently report that her coordination has really deteriorated and the spark has left her eyes. It’s discouraging. We’ve already begun discussions about whether we’d want to ring, should the need arise. Just a bummer all around. Kind of interesting how Catherine (the sister) recently posted about being the bearer of this kind of news to patients...
Alrighty. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day and also the night of my monthly IMA meeting. It was our annual energy meeting at the Fin ‘n’ Feather. The weather was gorgeous and we joked that we should have booked a boat tour. The speakers were ok, although there was a lot of duplication. The bar downstairs must have been hopping because it got very smoky upstairs by where we were. The board of directors for next year was approved by the chapter so now in addition to my Director of Attendance, Meetings, and Nametags hats I’ll be wearing the VP Membership hat as well. I plan to go to the regional leadership training in April so we’ll see if I get any new ideas from that.
That night Adam was complaining about itchy eyes. I suggested perhaps he had pinkeye (it had been going around my office a while back.) I was kind of joking, but when I got up to take Carly to the bathroom around 1AM (don’t even get me started on that) he was in the office on the computer, self-diagnosing. I took a look at his eyes Wednesday morning and it looked like that was it. He stopped by the eye doctor during lunch, they confirmed, and gave him a prescription for eye drops. He's much improved, but let’s hope I don’t get it!
Wednesday night entailed a lot of catch-up as most weeks with IMA meetings do. Cleaning, DVR. Adam had Thursday and today off. For the weekend, we’ve got Cadillac Records waiting to be watched. Shopping. Cleaning. We'll see what happens.
And now, some kitty pictures. You know you love them.
Carly's new favorite spot
That's right. ON TOP of the refrigerator. Usually inside Adam's lunchbox.
Sigh
Then I caught JC standing in the huge teacup. Heh.
And I don't think I even want to know what was going on with this poor reindeer toy.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I bet Dakota will like this
Ignore the scene-stealing cat. He just would not leave SpongeBob alone...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Cat Room Painted
Before (chair rails are UGLY!):
Intermediate (note the oh so chic paint test squares):
After:
We will be replacing the blinds this weekend with an off-white version after Adam gets the trim put up on the bottom of the window.
It's much brighter in the room now. Adam says it feels like walking into an aquarium. I jokingly suggested we paint fish on the walls. He thinks that's a good idea. *sigh*
Intermediate (note the oh so chic paint test squares):
After:
We will be replacing the blinds this weekend with an off-white version after Adam gets the trim put up on the bottom of the window.
It's much brighter in the room now. Adam says it feels like walking into an aquarium. I jokingly suggested we paint fish on the walls. He thinks that's a good idea. *sigh*
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Weekend Update (but a lot less funny than the SNL version)
We went out on Friday evening, arriving at the bar about 5 minutes after it opened. We were the only ones there for a good hour. This time the bartender was actually the owner. He was a little rusty and kept misjudging the amounts on blended drinks. It was kind of funny. For us, that is. We talked a bit about cruises and vacations since he had just returned from an awful time in the Dominican Republic. We tried to convince him that cruising was the way to go, but it seems like he’s more of a beach bum. We stopped for food on the way home and then went to bed.
It was another long night of kitty fighting. I slept horribly and Adam didn’t seem to notice the almost continuous ruckus. When the alarm went off we both remained in bed for another hour or so. When we got up we showered and headed out to do our shopping. As we got a later start, we were met by larger crowds. We got back home around 11 and I ate a bowl of cereal before we clipped Carly’s nails. I held her while Adam did the dirty work. On the second to last nail she spazzed and he ended up chopping way too much. Oh, the blood. We tried the dipping her foot in flour thing but she still left a gazillion bloody footprints all over the place in the cat room. We left her in there for a while since most surfaces there are easily cleaned (or not that important.) I laid down to take a nap while Adam caught up on his DVR programs. When I got back up we went up to Golf Galaxy so Adam could pick out his (early) birthday present – a new putter. We went back home, had dinner. That’s about it.
Sunday morning Adam headed off to work and I headed out to do some clothes shopping before the snow began. I was relatively successful. I returned home, started laundry, and watched Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Why is it that French (or, really, most foreign) movies are so much better than local ones? They don’t put out as many, but they’re always of such better quality. Anyway, I also failed to mention that we watched Iron Man some time last week. Kind of Transformers meets Spiderman, but not really my thing. So I’m 14 movies through my list of 33. Yay.
After I finished the movie I had time to clean up in the kitchen before Adam got home. We went up to Menards to get some paint for the cat room during their paint sale. It’s the last room we have left to paint. Adam is making use of his day off today to get that done. I spent the rest of the afternoon checking on my hard drive backup process, baking brownies, and zoning out to NASCAR. Adam made pizza for dinner, we watched FOX, and went to bed.
It was an early one Monday morning, what with 6+ inches of snow being dumped on us Sunday night. Adam got up at 5 to go clear the driveway. The roads weren’t too bad, but it was very foggy. Like, can’t see the car in front of you foggy. That sucked. But it sucked even harder when I went home for lunch. The snow had turned into slush and once again the city of Oshkosh made absolutely no attempt to clear it off the streets. Thank goodness I don't have a low-lying car.
Yesterday was a pretty non-descript day. Nothing too exciting except for my 30-Minute Meal Experiment. And today both Adam and I have vacation. It's his birthday. We've got dinner plans, but not too sure what else will be going on.
In an attempt to get some decent pictures of Carly I pretty much stalked her with the camera all weekend. Sad to say I didn’t get much for all the time invested. I got a lot of BAD pictures:
The cat refuses to look at me when I try and take her picture. Or if she does, she GLARES.
Feel the chill...
In other cat news, Connor has taken to sleeping behind one of the litter boxes, directly in front of the heating vent. Once again, quite crafty on his part. But now on our multi-mid-night trips to the cat room not only do I have to make sure JC doesn't run in after me, I also have to check to make sure Connor isn't sleeping behind the box. Made the mistake of not checking once and shut Carly and Connor in the room together. Not a good thing...
And while we're at it, a few more cute kitty pictures. Just because.
Big Eyes
Sleepy Tail
Feel the love
It was another long night of kitty fighting. I slept horribly and Adam didn’t seem to notice the almost continuous ruckus. When the alarm went off we both remained in bed for another hour or so. When we got up we showered and headed out to do our shopping. As we got a later start, we were met by larger crowds. We got back home around 11 and I ate a bowl of cereal before we clipped Carly’s nails. I held her while Adam did the dirty work. On the second to last nail she spazzed and he ended up chopping way too much. Oh, the blood. We tried the dipping her foot in flour thing but she still left a gazillion bloody footprints all over the place in the cat room. We left her in there for a while since most surfaces there are easily cleaned (or not that important.) I laid down to take a nap while Adam caught up on his DVR programs. When I got back up we went up to Golf Galaxy so Adam could pick out his (early) birthday present – a new putter. We went back home, had dinner. That’s about it.
Sunday morning Adam headed off to work and I headed out to do some clothes shopping before the snow began. I was relatively successful. I returned home, started laundry, and watched Il y a longtemps que je t’aime. Why is it that French (or, really, most foreign) movies are so much better than local ones? They don’t put out as many, but they’re always of such better quality. Anyway, I also failed to mention that we watched Iron Man some time last week. Kind of Transformers meets Spiderman, but not really my thing. So I’m 14 movies through my list of 33. Yay.
After I finished the movie I had time to clean up in the kitchen before Adam got home. We went up to Menards to get some paint for the cat room during their paint sale. It’s the last room we have left to paint. Adam is making use of his day off today to get that done. I spent the rest of the afternoon checking on my hard drive backup process, baking brownies, and zoning out to NASCAR. Adam made pizza for dinner, we watched FOX, and went to bed.
It was an early one Monday morning, what with 6+ inches of snow being dumped on us Sunday night. Adam got up at 5 to go clear the driveway. The roads weren’t too bad, but it was very foggy. Like, can’t see the car in front of you foggy. That sucked. But it sucked even harder when I went home for lunch. The snow had turned into slush and once again the city of Oshkosh made absolutely no attempt to clear it off the streets. Thank goodness I don't have a low-lying car.
Yesterday was a pretty non-descript day. Nothing too exciting except for my 30-Minute Meal Experiment. And today both Adam and I have vacation. It's his birthday. We've got dinner plans, but not too sure what else will be going on.
In an attempt to get some decent pictures of Carly I pretty much stalked her with the camera all weekend. Sad to say I didn’t get much for all the time invested. I got a lot of BAD pictures:
The cat refuses to look at me when I try and take her picture. Or if she does, she GLARES.
Feel the chill...
In other cat news, Connor has taken to sleeping behind one of the litter boxes, directly in front of the heating vent. Once again, quite crafty on his part. But now on our multi-mid-night trips to the cat room not only do I have to make sure JC doesn't run in after me, I also have to check to make sure Connor isn't sleeping behind the box. Made the mistake of not checking once and shut Carly and Connor in the room together. Not a good thing...
And while we're at it, a few more cute kitty pictures. Just because.
Big Eyes
Sleepy Tail
Feel the love
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
From the jaws of another month-end I emerge...
Grr.
As seems to be the trend this winter, the day before inventory was met with a major snowstorm. We got dumped on. And it appears that Oshkosh misplaced all its snow plows. This is unfortunate since, well, the roads got snowed on as well. It’s a mess. It took almost a week (and two days of temperatures in the 40s) for the roads to be bearable. Luckily Neenah didn’t misplace their plows, but it still made for an interesting ride to work each morning. And the highway. Good lord. On Friday morning it was just terrible. I ended up going back through town after picking up the donuts rather than brave the chaos on 41.
Last weekend was pretty uneventful. We did our shopping on Saturday. Went out to breakfast and had the weirdest waitress at IHOP. We figure she must have been an airline stewardess in a previous life. Even went to Simon’s. Then we tried to watch Hellboy II. I say “tried” because Adam got bored about 20 minutes in and I only lasted a little more than an hour. When some jelly bean looking green thing sucked up sewage and became some freaked out Green Giant forest monster thing I was done. So stupid. Granted, I didn’t see Hellboy 1, so maybe I was missing something. It was nominated for make-up or costumes or something so I don’t feel too badly that I didn’t watch the whole thing. It was just so dumb. (…wait for backlash from die-hard Hellboy fans a la Cinderella Man a few years back…)
Anywho, Sunday morning Adam decided it was time to replace the instant hot water thing in the kitchen. It had been dying a slow, painful death anyway, so it was probably nice of him to finally put it out of its misery. He did some online research and went and got a new Insinkerator faucet. We have now replaced every Kenmore appliance in the house. Woot. (Not that Kenmore is a bad brand. I mean they were original to the house so they had to have some kind of staying power. But it’s just not our thing…) I did the tool-girl thing again. He swapped it out in under an hour. Pretty impressive since the instructions had a 2 to 4 hour time estimate. The new one is about twice as large as the old one and has an actual thermostat. Yay.
I left for Sheboygan around 10:15. I had lunch plans with Jess since it was her birthday. The drive down wasn’t bad. It was weird seeing all kind of cars parked on the street in the city though. Pretty much no one parks on the street in the Fox Cities while seemingly everyone does in Sheboygan. I felt like I was playing Frogger, but my car was the frog. Anywho, I stopped in and said hi and then we went to lunch at a Chinese place. In an old Hardee’s building. By the abandoned Walmart. Oh yeah, about that. Apparently since the Walmart no longer exists they don’t bother to plow that part of the parking lot. Didn’t notice that until I was already giving my struts a work-out. It was bumpy. And some poor car followed me into that mess. I kind of felt bad about that. The buffet was the biggest I’d seen in some time. We usually order in our Chinese food from a place that delivers in record time. Everything looked good and was infinitely better than the last buffet experience I had. (It was all my fault though, so there’s no one else to blame.) We ate, talked. During this time I had a random phone call which was weird for two reasons: 1) no one ever calls me. Seriously. 2) It was a strange area code. I didn’t answer it, of course. After we left I saw I had a message. It was Catherine (the sister) telling me she had a new phone number. So, mystery solved. We went back to Jess’ apartment and watched an episode of Solitary 3.0 on Hulu. Interesting show. I headed back home around 3. Did laundry and caught up on some stuff during the evening. And watched the first episode of the Solitary season on the PS3. Heh.
Monday morning was back to work. Because of the stupid short month of February day 1 ended up on a Monday again. I was at work until about 6 when I left to head to hand bell practice. We were missing two people so it was a short one. Which was good because I hadn’t eaten dinner. I stopped and picked up something for both of us on the way home since Adam had also stayed late at work. We ate as we watched the first episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. I went to bed and Adam stayed up a little while working on something (work related I’m guessing.)
Monday night was rough. We went to bed later than usual, Adam had some gastrointestinal issues, the cats were annoying, and I had to be at work at 6:30 so we had to get up early. So, yeah, I've been tired. Luckily the rest of the week was pretty low-key. On Tuesday there was a weird message on the answering machine and thanks to caller ID I saw it was Catherine (the sister) again. So I called her back to see if she needed something. Apparently she got a new iPhone and had butt-dialed our home number. (It's a funny commercial. Seriously, go watch it.) We talked for a bit before I had to feed the cats and make dinner.
Yesterday evening Adam went up to Green Bay to go shopping for new golf clubs with Dave. I caught up on some of my DVR shows and chilled with the cats.
Tonight we plan to hit the Monkey Bar for a while to celebrate his birthday a little early. The weekend holds some shopping, Adam works on Sunday again, and I hope to do some cleaning up around the place. Or take a nap. we'll see what wins out.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, some much needed cute cat pictures. They've been seriously lacking around here lately.
Ted sprawled on the bed in the computer room:
JC's latest toy - this obnoxiously green feather thing. And yes, there are now bits of green feather all over the house.
Conner conked out in the sun:
I'd try and post a cute picture of Carly, but every time I try and take her picture she glares at me. So not cute. So until she chills out you might not see too much of her. We'll see.
As seems to be the trend this winter, the day before inventory was met with a major snowstorm. We got dumped on. And it appears that Oshkosh misplaced all its snow plows. This is unfortunate since, well, the roads got snowed on as well. It’s a mess. It took almost a week (and two days of temperatures in the 40s) for the roads to be bearable. Luckily Neenah didn’t misplace their plows, but it still made for an interesting ride to work each morning. And the highway. Good lord. On Friday morning it was just terrible. I ended up going back through town after picking up the donuts rather than brave the chaos on 41.
Last weekend was pretty uneventful. We did our shopping on Saturday. Went out to breakfast and had the weirdest waitress at IHOP. We figure she must have been an airline stewardess in a previous life. Even went to Simon’s. Then we tried to watch Hellboy II. I say “tried” because Adam got bored about 20 minutes in and I only lasted a little more than an hour. When some jelly bean looking green thing sucked up sewage and became some freaked out Green Giant forest monster thing I was done. So stupid. Granted, I didn’t see Hellboy 1, so maybe I was missing something. It was nominated for make-up or costumes or something so I don’t feel too badly that I didn’t watch the whole thing. It was just so dumb. (…wait for backlash from die-hard Hellboy fans a la Cinderella Man a few years back…)
Anywho, Sunday morning Adam decided it was time to replace the instant hot water thing in the kitchen. It had been dying a slow, painful death anyway, so it was probably nice of him to finally put it out of its misery. He did some online research and went and got a new Insinkerator faucet. We have now replaced every Kenmore appliance in the house. Woot. (Not that Kenmore is a bad brand. I mean they were original to the house so they had to have some kind of staying power. But it’s just not our thing…) I did the tool-girl thing again. He swapped it out in under an hour. Pretty impressive since the instructions had a 2 to 4 hour time estimate. The new one is about twice as large as the old one and has an actual thermostat. Yay.
I left for Sheboygan around 10:15. I had lunch plans with Jess since it was her birthday. The drive down wasn’t bad. It was weird seeing all kind of cars parked on the street in the city though. Pretty much no one parks on the street in the Fox Cities while seemingly everyone does in Sheboygan. I felt like I was playing Frogger, but my car was the frog. Anywho, I stopped in and said hi and then we went to lunch at a Chinese place. In an old Hardee’s building. By the abandoned Walmart. Oh yeah, about that. Apparently since the Walmart no longer exists they don’t bother to plow that part of the parking lot. Didn’t notice that until I was already giving my struts a work-out. It was bumpy. And some poor car followed me into that mess. I kind of felt bad about that. The buffet was the biggest I’d seen in some time. We usually order in our Chinese food from a place that delivers in record time. Everything looked good and was infinitely better than the last buffet experience I had. (It was all my fault though, so there’s no one else to blame.) We ate, talked. During this time I had a random phone call which was weird for two reasons: 1) no one ever calls me. Seriously. 2) It was a strange area code. I didn’t answer it, of course. After we left I saw I had a message. It was Catherine (the sister) telling me she had a new phone number. So, mystery solved. We went back to Jess’ apartment and watched an episode of Solitary 3.0 on Hulu. Interesting show. I headed back home around 3. Did laundry and caught up on some stuff during the evening. And watched the first episode of the Solitary season on the PS3. Heh.
Monday morning was back to work. Because of the stupid short month of February day 1 ended up on a Monday again. I was at work until about 6 when I left to head to hand bell practice. We were missing two people so it was a short one. Which was good because I hadn’t eaten dinner. I stopped and picked up something for both of us on the way home since Adam had also stayed late at work. We ate as we watched the first episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. I went to bed and Adam stayed up a little while working on something (work related I’m guessing.)
Monday night was rough. We went to bed later than usual, Adam had some gastrointestinal issues, the cats were annoying, and I had to be at work at 6:30 so we had to get up early. So, yeah, I've been tired. Luckily the rest of the week was pretty low-key. On Tuesday there was a weird message on the answering machine and thanks to caller ID I saw it was Catherine (the sister) again. So I called her back to see if she needed something. Apparently she got a new iPhone and had butt-dialed our home number. (It's a funny commercial. Seriously, go watch it.) We talked for a bit before I had to feed the cats and make dinner.
Yesterday evening Adam went up to Green Bay to go shopping for new golf clubs with Dave. I caught up on some of my DVR shows and chilled with the cats.
Tonight we plan to hit the Monkey Bar for a while to celebrate his birthday a little early. The weekend holds some shopping, Adam works on Sunday again, and I hope to do some cleaning up around the place. Or take a nap. we'll see what wins out.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, some much needed cute cat pictures. They've been seriously lacking around here lately.
Ted sprawled on the bed in the computer room:
JC's latest toy - this obnoxiously green feather thing. And yes, there are now bits of green feather all over the house.
Conner conked out in the sun:
I'd try and post a cute picture of Carly, but every time I try and take her picture she glares at me. So not cute. So until she chills out you might not see too much of her. We'll see.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I'll Try and Be Nice...
...seeing as how certain members of my family are a part of the medical profession.
But I'm pissed.
I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I called half an hour before my time slot to see if the doctor was running behind. Three no-shows and the person before me hadn't even shown up yet. Come on in!
So I immediately left work and drove the 5 minutes to the office. I stood in line behind some clueless chick, got my paperwork, paid my co-pay and sat down to wait.
And wait.
I sat there waiting for 20 minutes, 15 minutes PAST my appointment time.
I finally got called back, blood pressure, etc. Was told to strip, the doctor would be in in a few minutes.
5 minutes.
10 minutes.
Freaking 25 minutes.
At half an hour I was so pissed I put my clothes back on and went to find someone. I found the nurse and doctor in their lab area. Asked whether they had forgotten about me. Was told she'd be right there.
I went back to my room and sat down. Didn't undress. She can wait for me for once.
The doctor comes in. Apologizes. I tell her the next time someone tells me she'll be right in, I'll wait half an hour and then undress. Apparently the person before me (who showed up 15 minutes late) was a new patient and took a while.
She flew through the exam wham, bam, thank-you m'am style. A swab, a poke, and I was out of there. But I'm still pissed.
If they knew the person in front of me was new, why couldn't she have done my quick and easy before the long, drawn-out (CLUELESS CHICK WHO WAS FREAKIN' LATE) one? I just don't understand it.
*Deep breath*
But I'm pissed.
I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I called half an hour before my time slot to see if the doctor was running behind. Three no-shows and the person before me hadn't even shown up yet. Come on in!
So I immediately left work and drove the 5 minutes to the office. I stood in line behind some clueless chick, got my paperwork, paid my co-pay and sat down to wait.
And wait.
I sat there waiting for 20 minutes, 15 minutes PAST my appointment time.
I finally got called back, blood pressure, etc. Was told to strip, the doctor would be in in a few minutes.
5 minutes.
10 minutes.
Freaking 25 minutes.
At half an hour I was so pissed I put my clothes back on and went to find someone. I found the nurse and doctor in their lab area. Asked whether they had forgotten about me. Was told she'd be right there.
I went back to my room and sat down. Didn't undress. She can wait for me for once.
The doctor comes in. Apologizes. I tell her the next time someone tells me she'll be right in, I'll wait half an hour and then undress. Apparently the person before me (who showed up 15 minutes late) was a new patient and took a while.
She flew through the exam wham, bam, thank-you m'am style. A swab, a poke, and I was out of there. But I'm still pissed.
If they knew the person in front of me was new, why couldn't she have done my quick and easy before the long, drawn-out (CLUELESS CHICK WHO WAS FREAKIN' LATE) one? I just don't understand it.
*Deep breath*
Monday, February 23, 2009
Lamps and Oscars
We went to Home Depot yesterday morning to get a lamp and some other household wares. We found an unoffensive clear lamp on clearance for $16. Score. We also got a lamp dimmer switch so we can turn it off from bed. Yes. We’re lazy.
Adam dropped me back off at home and went to work. I did some cleaning, laundry, and then settled in on the couch for the NCIS marathon. Adam was originally supposed to be home early afternoon, but he ended up coming home around 6. He brought dinner with him though, so it was ok. We ate, watched the race for a little while, and then he retreated to the bedroom soon after the Oscars began.
I did watch the whole thing. Well, I turned the TV off after Slumdog was announced so I didn’t get to see the slew of people up on stage. I thought Hugh Jackman did a fine job of hosting. He didn’t actually get to be on stage much aside from the musical numbers. There were no stupid jokes, no uncomfortable jabs at the famous people in attendance. I thought the overall structure of the ceremony was interesting too. Though some of the presenters seemed ill at ease, I liked the idea of bringing former winners on stage to announce the most recent winner. I thought it was pretty low that they kept cutting to Brad and Angelina while Jennifer Aniston was on stage though. Overall I think that couple gets way too much attention. I’m kind of glad neither of them won last night.
There were no long-winded acceptance speeches. There were a few that were unintelligible due to language differences. But overall, things kept moving well. No one got cut off by the evil orchestra. Only two were even remotely political (Sean Penn and the guy who wrote the screenplay for Milk) and even those were still respectfully said and generally well received.
I was kind of confused by the musical montage of songs though. Only three nominations, two from Slumdog? Were there really no other songs in any of the movies this year? And wow, what a wardrobe malfunction when they announced the winner. The lady dancer to the right of the podium totally had her boob exposed. Luckily the 7-second tape delay enabled them to blur it, but come on. It was obvious. You could see her scramble to pull her shirt up when they cut away. Heh.
There were a few other technical difficulties I noticed. They had problems getting the curtain open for the first award montage. Some of the presenters went the wrong direction or forgot they had multiple awards to hand out. And, while not a technical difficulty, I was annoyed by the In Memorium section. I loved that they had Queen Latifah sing, but the pictures kept getting bigger and smaller, moving around the screens on the stage. It was really distracting.
I haven’t read too many “professional” critiques yet. I thought it was a pretty good show. I liked the musical montage, but if you’re not familiar with the musicals of days gone by I can understand why you’d think that was a bad idea. I liked how they intercut the current year’s best picture nominees with previous ones (the challenge was to see how many you could identify), but apparently this bothered some people. I didn’t really think the show dragged. I was more annoyed by stupid commercials (I’m looking at you Van Vreede’s) than stupid presentations and witty scripted banter. I thought the new format worked well – taking us through the whole film-making process in order and giving background. Then again, that’s something that appeals to me in general. I love the AMC show “Backstory” for this same reason. As I said before, I also liked seeing former winners present, but admit this was the part of the show that seemed the least sincere and the slowest. No show will ever make everyone happy. I do hope they decide to stick with some of these new ideas in the future.
Adam dropped me back off at home and went to work. I did some cleaning, laundry, and then settled in on the couch for the NCIS marathon. Adam was originally supposed to be home early afternoon, but he ended up coming home around 6. He brought dinner with him though, so it was ok. We ate, watched the race for a little while, and then he retreated to the bedroom soon after the Oscars began.
I did watch the whole thing. Well, I turned the TV off after Slumdog was announced so I didn’t get to see the slew of people up on stage. I thought Hugh Jackman did a fine job of hosting. He didn’t actually get to be on stage much aside from the musical numbers. There were no stupid jokes, no uncomfortable jabs at the famous people in attendance. I thought the overall structure of the ceremony was interesting too. Though some of the presenters seemed ill at ease, I liked the idea of bringing former winners on stage to announce the most recent winner. I thought it was pretty low that they kept cutting to Brad and Angelina while Jennifer Aniston was on stage though. Overall I think that couple gets way too much attention. I’m kind of glad neither of them won last night.
There were no long-winded acceptance speeches. There were a few that were unintelligible due to language differences. But overall, things kept moving well. No one got cut off by the evil orchestra. Only two were even remotely political (Sean Penn and the guy who wrote the screenplay for Milk) and even those were still respectfully said and generally well received.
I was kind of confused by the musical montage of songs though. Only three nominations, two from Slumdog? Were there really no other songs in any of the movies this year? And wow, what a wardrobe malfunction when they announced the winner. The lady dancer to the right of the podium totally had her boob exposed. Luckily the 7-second tape delay enabled them to blur it, but come on. It was obvious. You could see her scramble to pull her shirt up when they cut away. Heh.
There were a few other technical difficulties I noticed. They had problems getting the curtain open for the first award montage. Some of the presenters went the wrong direction or forgot they had multiple awards to hand out. And, while not a technical difficulty, I was annoyed by the In Memorium section. I loved that they had Queen Latifah sing, but the pictures kept getting bigger and smaller, moving around the screens on the stage. It was really distracting.
I haven’t read too many “professional” critiques yet. I thought it was a pretty good show. I liked the musical montage, but if you’re not familiar with the musicals of days gone by I can understand why you’d think that was a bad idea. I liked how they intercut the current year’s best picture nominees with previous ones (the challenge was to see how many you could identify), but apparently this bothered some people. I didn’t really think the show dragged. I was more annoyed by stupid commercials (I’m looking at you Van Vreede’s) than stupid presentations and witty scripted banter. I thought the new format worked well – taking us through the whole film-making process in order and giving background. Then again, that’s something that appeals to me in general. I love the AMC show “Backstory” for this same reason. As I said before, I also liked seeing former winners present, but admit this was the part of the show that seemed the least sincere and the slowest. No show will ever make everyone happy. I do hope they decide to stick with some of these new ideas in the future.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A Little Bit of Everything
Wow, I’m tired. This week was crazy.
Monday was bells. We’re scheduled to play three or four more times before May. It’s Easter right now and then Mother’s Day.
Tuesday was IMA and the speakers were probably the best so far this year. The first speaker was the marketing director at the Outagamie County Airport. Interesting presentation about how airports raise and spend money. The second speaker was an inspector from the Federal Protection Service. Lots of interesting stories about protecting federal buildings. The weather cooperated and the snow held off until I was back home.
Wednesday Adam went golfing and I spent a good deal of my evening cleaning up and doing laundry. I tried to catch up a little on my DVR shows. I also watched a movie – My Best Friend’s Girl. For such a crappy movie, it was actually pretty good. I actually fell off the couch laughing at one point. Seriously. It’s kind of raunchy, but nowhere near the unnecessary Judd Apatow level. Just raunchy enough. And Dane Cook is hilarious pretty much all the time anyway.
Thursday we went to dinner at The Clubhouse inside the Paper Valley before seeing "Wicked" at the PAC. We’d never been there before, but we’ll probably go back. The prices are phenomenal (although I suggested that perhaps Lombardi’s offsets the small margins in the bar) and the food was good. The service wasn’t extraordinary but I guess you take the good with the bad. The show on the other hand was definitely extraordinary. I’d tell everyone in the area to go see it, but unless you already have tickets I think you’re out of luck. The sets are amazing, the special effects are great (although we saw in the paper that the theatrical smoke set off the fire alarms and caused an evacuation last night. Whoops!), and the songs and actors are wonderful. Top notch all around. I wish I could have had the opportunity to see it with the original Broadway cast. Glinda is pretty much written for Kristen Chenoweth and I’m sure she was awesome. The story itself is pretty intriguing as well. As a fan of historical fiction, it was right up my alley. I also found it interesting that they have a core orchestra with keyboards and drums but then they use local musicians to flesh it out. Very cool.
We got home kind of late - around 11. Our seats were not conducive to a quick escape. The Carly alarm went off around 5:15. Last night I had a hair appointment after work. I was kind of overdue. I asked her to try something with curls and I came home looking like Little Orphan Annie. I suppose I should have been more specific. Heh.
This weekend has consisted of shopping – the lists had gotten rather long - and catching up on the DVR. Home improvement plans on the docket include replacing the lamp and clapper in the bedroom and re-vamping the shelving arrangements out in the garage. Tomorrow is the Oscar ceremony and I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to watch it. It will probably depend on whether I remember about it or not.
This afternoon we watched Madagascar 2 while the floor was drying. Not as good as I thought it would be, but still funny and watchable. We own the original. Don't think I'd bother to purchase the sequel.
Monday was bells. We’re scheduled to play three or four more times before May. It’s Easter right now and then Mother’s Day.
Tuesday was IMA and the speakers were probably the best so far this year. The first speaker was the marketing director at the Outagamie County Airport. Interesting presentation about how airports raise and spend money. The second speaker was an inspector from the Federal Protection Service. Lots of interesting stories about protecting federal buildings. The weather cooperated and the snow held off until I was back home.
Wednesday Adam went golfing and I spent a good deal of my evening cleaning up and doing laundry. I tried to catch up a little on my DVR shows. I also watched a movie – My Best Friend’s Girl. For such a crappy movie, it was actually pretty good. I actually fell off the couch laughing at one point. Seriously. It’s kind of raunchy, but nowhere near the unnecessary Judd Apatow level. Just raunchy enough. And Dane Cook is hilarious pretty much all the time anyway.
Thursday we went to dinner at The Clubhouse inside the Paper Valley before seeing "Wicked" at the PAC. We’d never been there before, but we’ll probably go back. The prices are phenomenal (although I suggested that perhaps Lombardi’s offsets the small margins in the bar) and the food was good. The service wasn’t extraordinary but I guess you take the good with the bad. The show on the other hand was definitely extraordinary. I’d tell everyone in the area to go see it, but unless you already have tickets I think you’re out of luck. The sets are amazing, the special effects are great (although we saw in the paper that the theatrical smoke set off the fire alarms and caused an evacuation last night. Whoops!), and the songs and actors are wonderful. Top notch all around. I wish I could have had the opportunity to see it with the original Broadway cast. Glinda is pretty much written for Kristen Chenoweth and I’m sure she was awesome. The story itself is pretty intriguing as well. As a fan of historical fiction, it was right up my alley. I also found it interesting that they have a core orchestra with keyboards and drums but then they use local musicians to flesh it out. Very cool.
We got home kind of late - around 11. Our seats were not conducive to a quick escape. The Carly alarm went off around 5:15. Last night I had a hair appointment after work. I was kind of overdue. I asked her to try something with curls and I came home looking like Little Orphan Annie. I suppose I should have been more specific. Heh.
This weekend has consisted of shopping – the lists had gotten rather long - and catching up on the DVR. Home improvement plans on the docket include replacing the lamp and clapper in the bedroom and re-vamping the shelving arrangements out in the garage. Tomorrow is the Oscar ceremony and I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to watch it. It will probably depend on whether I remember about it or not.
This afternoon we watched Madagascar 2 while the floor was drying. Not as good as I thought it would be, but still funny and watchable. We own the original. Don't think I'd bother to purchase the sequel.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How the cats are slowly destroying the house
So I called home yesterday night on my way home from IMA to see if Adam needed me to pick up anything. He was in the process of trying to fix the lamp that sits on the nightstand in our bedroom. Apparently Ted and JC got into some kind of tussle on the bed and ended up falling off onto the table, which knocked the lamp on the floor. And then Ted somehow fell on it, breaking the top (that Adam had just SUPERGLUED with some scary, smelly, chemical compound) off. It’s baffling, really. When the lamp refused to work Adam thought perhaps it was the clapper we have it plugged into that was causing the problem. So he disconnected that and hooked it to the dehumidifier to make sure it still worked. Apparently you’re not supposed to use the clapper on the dehumidifier because it pretty much fried it immediately. D’oh! So, now we’re down a lamp and a clapper. I stopped at Walmart to see if I could find something cheap, but all their new Better Homes stuff is totally ugly. So, for now, the bedroom is kind of dark and we’ll look for a new lamp (and remote outlet) this weekend.
I’m sure this would be hilarious if it wasn’t becoming a regular occurrence around here.
I’m sure this would be hilarious if it wasn’t becoming a regular occurrence around here.
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