New Beginnings

If Candlemas day be sunny and bright, Winter again will show its might.
If Candlemas day be cloudy and grey, Winter soon will pass away.

We all know the 'rule' about Groundhog Day- If the groundhog sees his shadow, then we get 6 more weeks of winter but if not, then spring is soon to come.  I find that whole thing a tiny bit odd. I mean .. I know where the 'official' groundhog is, he didn't see his shadow .. but here, it's bright an sunny and bordering on warm, so here, a groundhog certainly would. So how does that account for different parts of the country, much less the world?

Groundhog Day (or Candlemas, or Imbolc) for me is instead about new beginnings. It seems to happen that around this time every year, something new begins for me. last year, I left a job that was causing me stress and not paying me enough to even make traveling worth it.  I wish that the job at the yarn shop had lasted longer after that, but Sheri wasn't happy running the place, and it was becoming an unfun place to work.

With that in mind, I have chosen to take this Imbolc as a time to begin actively working on the School of the Season's New Year's Wishes workbook. It's something I wanted to start last year, but school and work and everything got in the way. I'll be posting my exercises here, both as a way to share my explorations, and because I don't really like writing things longhand anymore.

Saturday Fun

Yesterday I woke up in terrible pain thanks to Mother Nature's little joke and after having been unable to sleep well.  Jason was planning to go troll the junk stores, and I decided that I would go with him. We drove around and found several old books good for my mixed media crafts, and a candlestick and a little frame for my make-do project, and some ABC blocks I plan to use to make another make-do base. I usually avoid going to the junk/antique stores because he often goes with his parents, and they'll spend -hours- talking to the shop owners, and honestly, that's just not enjoyable to me. But with just my honey, it was kinda fun. I ended up with a bunch of books for like $2, and all I'm gonna do with them is tear the pages up for decoupage and art journalling, plus half a dozen small bottles destined to be made far prettier than they are right now, a little baggie of old-style ABC blocks I'll turn into something for Brittany and her baby.

Somewhere along the way we were treated to the most amusing sight; a snowman made of hay rolls.

This is how you know you live in the south.  Come fall, we see these hay rolls everywhere, dotting fields as they're left to try, piled on the edges of fields and in barns. But I have never before seen them fashioned into a giant ... I'd say at least 15'-tall.  While I was taking this picture, there was a dog barking at the house you can see in the background. He wasn't on a chain or lead or anything, but he didn't come after me. just barkbarkbarked until I got back in the car and we left. Just warning me 'don't come closer, this is my house!'

We had dinner at a place in Bessemer City (which is not a city) called The Gondola (pronounced gone-DOUGH-luh here, not GONE-dough-luh as you would think).  I was gonna get a steak, to reinforce my iron levels, but instead got the Butterfields Chicken. And it was a good choice.  It's chicken, sauteed onions and mushrooms and ham (or pancetta, I'm not sure which it was) in an alfredo sauce over spaghetti. I ended up only able to eat a bite or four before getting a to-go box, so Jason and I could share dessert, which was Peanut-butter Thunder cake. And oh, was it good!

We ended the day with two trips to Hobby Lobby. One in Gastonia .. which ended up with us walking out without purchasing anything because they were -rude- .. after which we went to the store in Rock Hill and ended up getting everything we needed there, and a little more, including the lined clear stamp Jason's been wanting badly. Yay!

I never did post pictures from the snow day we had this month.

We don't get a lot of snow, but this 'storm' kept honey home for a couple of days. It was nice .. even if we were sick for it.

101 in 1001 - Third Time's the Charm?

Start date: 12-21-2010
End Date: 9-17-2013

Self Improvement:
001. Complete Living in Season’s New Year’s Dreams course (Blogfodder)
002. Complete Living in Season’s seasonal workbooks (Blogfodder)
003. Lose another 25/50 pounds
004. Work out on WiiFit at least 3x a week for 2 months/for 6 months/for 1 year.
005.Take dance lessons with my husband
006. Keep my home ‘drop in’ ready for 3 months/6 months/1 year
007. Have laser eye surgery done
008. Pay off CapOne card
009. Pay off Citi card
010. Enjoy 10 Manicures/Pedicures (0/10)
011. Enjoy 3 professional massages. (0/3)
012. Complete Year and a Day in Magick book (Blogfodder)
013. Decide if I want to do a teaching program and get my license, or continue with Masters and teach college.
014. Finish teaching program/take Praxis ii/get license OR complete masters program of choice
015. Keep a Daily Happiness Journal and use it at least 3x a week (Blogfodder)
016. Donate 100k grains of rice on FreeRice.com

Food and Drink:
017. Cook at least five recipes from each cook book I currently own, & blog about them

(Caveat: just the ones currently in the house. Most of them are packed up.)

018. Take a cooking class
019. Learn how to make 10 different cocktails
020. Make cookie boxes for family/friend gifts for 2011/2012
021. Create a personal cookbook/recipe file of my favorites (Blogfodder)

Creative:
022. Complete a jigsaw puzzle with my husband
023. Participate fully in the 52 in 52 knitting challenge (Blogfodder)
024. Participate fully in the Year of Stash Socks challenge (Blogfodder)
025. Take a quilting class
026. Go on the Believe in Yourself retreat
027. Complete a Journal Journey (Blogfodder)
028. Put together a wedding/Our Life scrapbook
029. Create a photo wall in my office with framed pictures of friends and family
030. Finish the afghan kit I have in the stash (Blogfodder)
031. Finish the beaded bag kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)
032. Finish the beaded scarf kit I have in stash (Blogfodder)

Photography:
033. Take a photograph to represent each month (0/33) (Blogfodder)
034. Upload photos to BlipFoto at least 3x/week for 1 month/6 months/1 year
035. Complete Project 365 (0/365)
036. Submit a photo to a photography competition (Blogfodder)
037. Take part in the 4am project
038. Take ten pictures of things that make me happy (0/10) (Blogfodder)
039. Take ten pictures of things that make me sad (0/10) (Blogfodder)
040. Make a coffee table book out of our travel photography
041. Photograph a landscape from the same location, capturing all four seasons (Blogfodder)
042. Participate in at least one 26 Things list (Blogfodder)

Reading/Writing:
043. Leave 12 notes in 12 different books for strangers to find (Blogfodder)
044. Answer the “50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind”
045. Read 10 novels off the Modern Library’s Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
046. Read 10 novels off the 1001 Books You Must Read before You Die list (Blogfodder)
047. Blog about each of my 101 things as they are completed
048. Send two postcards a month through PostCrossing
049. Participate in and finish NaBloPoMo
050. Read 1 book every month and blog about it
051. Write 1 poem every week for 6 months/1 year/18 months/2 years
052. Reach 500 blog posts in my personal journal/photo journal/knitting journal
053. Submit my writing to a publication every 3 months
054. Read the books I own but have never finished

Movies/TV/Music:
055. See 10 movies on the AFI Top 100 list (Blogfodder)
056. See 25 movies on the IMDB top 250 list (Blogfodder)
057. Compile a playlist of my 100 favorite songs 
058. Compile a list of my 100 favorite movies 

Places to Visit/Things to See:
059. Travel somewhere by train 
060. Take a cruise longer than 3 days 
061. Watch the sun rise and set in the same day.

Things to Buy:
062. A traditional Anniversary gift for my husband on our 10th, 11th and 12th Anniversaries
063. An iPad

Other:
064. Drink beer (wine, mixed drink) at noon on Tuesday in a bar that faces a giant car wash
065. Leave 20 Operation Beautiful notes somewhere (Blogfodder)
066. Repaint our kitchen cabinets white
067. Repaint our bedroom
068. Paint bathrooms
069. Encourage someone to write their own 101 in 1001 list
070. Have my wedding rings resized
071. Frame and hang our diplomas when we get them in January/February
072. Decrease my stash by 1 tote/2 totes/3 totes
073. Have my holiday gift list finished by September 1st 2011/2012/2013
074. Have all purchasable gifts wrapped by December 1st 2011/2012
075. Frame the print we bought in Asheville last year, and my poster, and hang them somewhere
076. Clean out my closet every six months and donate old clothing to Goodwill/Tender Mercy

Post Holiday Crud, and other news

Jason and I came home from Stephanie's house with the crud. We used to call this sort of thing 'con crud' because normally you picked it up at whatever convention you'd been to that weekend. But since he and I aren't part of that world anymore, it's the 'post holiday crud' now, because typically, we get it from having gone somewhere other than our house. Mostly it's sinus issues, though he seems to have gotten it worse than me. Either that, or (as he suggested to one of the ladies he works with) I'm just not as much of a baby when I'm sick as he is.

A lot has happened since my last posting .. which really wasn't all that long ago. Two weeks ago exactly, at this time, I was dealing with the aftermath of a burglary in my home. Some 19-year-old nitwit broke into our home and stole Jason's and my wedding rings, the Wii and our games, Jason's laptop (but left mine sitting in plain sight), and a ring Jason had bought for me that was hidden well in Jason's office closet.

The whole story starts like this: I left that morning to pick Brandon up. We were planning to spend the night at Jason's parents' house since they were supposed to be out of town. Well, on the way back I had to stop to get gas .. I hadn't been planning on it but when the gauge says 'E' you kinda have to. Anyway, we got home about noon and I sorta half noticed that the laptop wasn't where I remembered it being. Then I saw my jewelry box and the drawer it was in were sitting on my desk. And I went upstairs .. looking for the laptop .. and saw the jewelry armoire honey got for me on our honeymoon was standing open too.

All of this didn't necessarily add up to being robbed though, and I continued to go about my routine, commenting to Brandon that "Jason must have come home and got the rings because he's gonna have them sized for Christmas .. how sweet is my honey?" I decided, however, to call him anyway, just in case. I started to go about my business and emptied the dishwasher, and Brandon commented 'Someone's been in the presents.. ' and I remember fussing at isis for it.

That's when I reached Jason, and he told me that no, he hadn't been home and that if the deadbolt was locked I needed to get the heck out of the house.  Which I did. We went and sat in the car while I called the police and waited for them to get there. I was starting to fall apart then, realizing that someone had been in my house .. in our bedroom .. and had taken our wedding rings. That was the worst part, really. I was terrified we'd never see them again.

The police responded pretty quickly .. first with a single officer who checked the house out for me, figured out the guy'd gotten in through the back office window, and assured me the house was empty, then with the K-9 units and finally the forensics units. Jason got home not long after and helped reassure me everything was alright. Brandon and I went over to momma and diddy's a few hours later, while the cops were searching the neighborhood .. one of the K-9 officers told me they were sure he hadn't managed to leave the neighborhood.

The story does have a happy ending. About 6pm Jason called me to tell me that they'd caught the guy and that all our stuff had been recovered. We stayed at the in-laws' house that night, though the window was 'secured' by use of a 2x4 jamming the window in place, and spent a lot of the time stalking the York County Sheriff's Current Inmate's website to get a look at the idiot who was caught.  His name is Gavyn Michael Lovett, and he just turned 19 on December 1st. Come to find out this is not his first time at the rodeo, and he's more than likely ruined his life with this most recent run of burglaries.

The next day I was on my way to bring Brandon back home to Kannapolis when the detective handling the case called me to have me come pick up my possessions. If I hadn't gone then, I'd have had to wait because everything would be in the evidence locker. Of course, i went and picked it up .. including the ring Jason bought me for a Christmas gift. So we have everything that was stolen .. except for our peace-of-mind. But that will come in time. We have to send our laptops in for repair .. mine got covered in magnetic fingerprint dust so I want to checked, and Jason's using the opportunity to have it fixed finally. In addition, we have to have the back window replaced, and are using the burglary to get the bedroom door replaced and probably replacing a couple of chairs as well. There's lots to get done still. But we're getting there.

Survived

Well, on Wednesday, our AC went out. It didn't go out until the evening, but by 7pm it was 78-degrees downstairs.. add ten degrees for the temp upstairs with no AC working.  By 7:30pm it was 81-degrees downstairs. We couldn't sleep in that, so we packed a few things and spent the night at Jason's mother's house. Thank the gods that she lives close by, we'd probably have had to stay in a hotel otherwise.

The following morning I came back to the house to check it .. still not working. So I filed a request for service with American Home Shield and proceeded to do some last-minute cleaning up. It didn't need much really, luckily - thanks to the RTH group on Ravelry, I'm inspired to keep my home neat enough for visitors all the time - but I had to vacuum downstairs, and put a few things away, and wanted to close blinds and curtains to try to keep most of the heat out. At 9am it was already 85-degrees downstairs; again, add ten degrees for upstairs, at least.  The man called, said he'd be here between 2 and 5pm and I went back to MILs house to spend the day there. I did some homework, I knitted a lot, and I waited.

Three-o-clock came and went. Four-o-clock. I went over to the house around 4:30pm to make sure I had a checkbook, but it was too hot to stay. Closer to 88 downstairs. Probably a hundred upstairs. Five-o-clock came and went, and no phone call, nothing. I finally called the main number around 5:45 to get an update. Then again around 6:15 when I still hadn't been called. The owner called me about 5 minutes later, then 5 minutes or so after that to let me know the man was in my driveway. He could have called, I'm thinking, to let me know he was on his way, but I'm being Southern, and holding my tongue.

Jason was closer even than I was, so he went to the house, waited while the guy replaced a capacitor that was apparently the culprit, and packed more clothes for himself for today. It wouldn't cool off in time for us to sleep there sadly, so we had to spend another night not in our own bed.  Isis had to spend another night not in her home, using not her own litterbox, but she survived it, bless her little heart.

Thankfully, it only cost us $60 .. well, plus the $500 for the AHS contract for the year. But that covers everything in the house through this summer and most of next. And by then, hopefully, we'll be in a better financial position. For one thing, I -should- have a job by then.

Things and Stuff

We cleaned out the closet this weekend. I'd already done a fair bit, going through my own clothes and pulling out anything I don't wear, or is too big/way-too-small for me, but I have been trying to get Jason to do the same. he resists it, because of all the money that's in the clothes we buy him, but I keep trying to tell him to not think about it. We already spent the money, it's being wasted whether we give the clothes new homes or whether it sits in the closet unused. He was grumpy though, which makes for not-so-fun times. I think he's happier now though, especially since we can actually hang all of our clothes in the closet again. We can get dressed somewhere other than the laundry room!

That bench on the short wall in this picture is where my half of the three bags had been sitting for months as I waited for him to get in gear and go through clothes himself. It's actually empty no. We could, feasibly, use it to have people over to eat! Not that most people want to eat our crazy low-carb diet. We got rid of our heavy down-like comforter and the duvet too, plus some blankets and shams and stuff. So much stuff collecting dust in our tiny home. Yay us!

Myrtle Beach

Jason and I went to the beach this weekend. It was a wonderful time, and we had a lot of fun, even though there was some .. unexpected "excitement" in the form of a fire two floors up from the condo we were staying in, and a shark about five feet from my feet.

We stayed at Louise's condo at Sand Dunes Resort on 74th ave in Myrtle Beach. Louise works with him at Tindol; she and her husband went to Florida for a week, so she let us use their condo for the weekend, free of charge.

We left early Saturday - early for us anyway - and drove the whole way to the beach. We got there about 1 in the afternoon and got all our stuff up to the condo, got settled, then headed out to Barefoot Landing. Our first destination was a winery we'd heard about that makes fruit wines, like blackberry and strawberry. We tasted a bunch, bought a few bottles for gifts and for ourselves, bought a blackberry wine slushy, and headed out to check out the shops. We found a few more gifts and me some pretty shell earrings, then picked up our wine and moved to the other side of the landing.

Spring 2009 Classes

HUMN 102
Classical Foundations

A study of aspects of the ancient Greco-Roman world (such as myth and religion, war and conquest, government and politics, social organization, and leisure activities) through examination of the words and actions of the protagonists. Original sources of history, philosophy, poetry, and drama are consulted. Focus is on individuals who contributed to the shaping of classical civilization. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: CLAS 100 or HUMN 102.


HUMN 351
Myth and Culture

A presentation of reflections on the interrelations of myth, religion, and culture in which myths are evaluated as embodiments of ethnic and universal ideas. Religion is analyzed within American and non-American cultures. Ideas and symbols from mythology that provide background for literature, music, and art are introduced.


WRTG 388
Advanced Grammar and Style

(Formerly ENGL 384. Fulfills the general education requirement in communications.) Prerequisite: WRTG 101/101X or ENGL 101/101X. An examination of the basic units of grammatical description, the nature of grammatical categories and structures and the reasons for creating and using them, and the application of grammatical concepts to written style. Students may receive credit for only one of the following: ENGL 384 or WRTG 388.

Driving me crazy ...

That's what the process of trying to register for classes this semester is doing, it's driving me crazy.

Apparently, we never paid PTC for the transcripts to be sent to UMUC. So they of course never sent them, and I never noticed. So I'm missing all that coursework from my degree evaluation. So they want me to take Writing 101 again. Writing 101. I'm a freaking English major! (Not that it shows in my blog posting, where I use really awful grammar and can't always spell, but that's irrelevant!)

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Since the accident, time has kinda been a bit of a blur. Of course, keeping busy has helped that. And playing World of Warcraft a lot .. it's a time sink, but one I'm willing to sink. I'm doing more than that, though. I keep the house up, I knit. I've finished a few things recently. I really want to finish my owl, though, and just keep working on other stuff. He'll get finished eventually.

So, the end result of the accident was that my Torrent was totaled. The guy at Griffin's body shop said bare minimum it would have been $11k worth of repairs. Minimum. That's pretty freaking scary.



The photos were taken on my phone .. which lost its battery in the crash, and I didn't notice till after I took the pictures. Considering I didn't own the car on the date the photos say they were taken, I figure that's pretty obvious.

It didn't look like that much .. of course, I never opened the hood. Honestly, I was scared to. Well, I was just plain scared. And what made things worse is immediately after, I had to drive around town. Not that day, but the following one. And I was soooooore. Just from the whole tensing thing .. I wasn't injured in the slightest. I guess I got lucky there.

So I had a rental car for a couple weeks, and then the guy's insurance company called to inform me they considered the car a total loss. They paid me $15k, and my insurance company paid the difference between that and the cost of my loan. Or my GAP insurance did, one or the other. Probably the GAP. Allstate - who we love more than life right now .. sent us a check just recently for the purchase of a new vehicle, which is helping quite a bit.

And a new vehicle had to be bought fairly quickly. I knew I wanted something similar to the Torrent, if not another Torrent. Looking at the damage, at the way he hit me .. had I been in a normal-sized car .. well .. I wanted the size of the SUV. So we looked at a couple. A Ford something-or-other, and a Subaru Tribeca. I also considered another Torrent because, well .. I loved that car, and i wanted it back. but after driving the Ford and then the Subaru, I really liked the ride in the Subaru. And it's even better rated for safety.

So that's what I picked. And they were able to find one form me by the time I had to give the rental car back to Enterprise .. but Jason and his Dad had to drive all the way up to Cary to pick it up. So they did .. driving one car each up to the dealership that had mine in trade, then driving home in my beautiful new car. I couldn't go, because I had to get the rental back between certain hours since Enterprise is only open for 3 hours on Saturday. WTF is up with that??

So I have a new baby. Bronze metallic is the color. It has leather .. heated seats even. A sunroof .. though they call it a moonroof. Dual climate control. It doesn't have XM - which is now Sirius/XM anyway .. nor does it have the rear climate controls that the one I test drove had. But I can plug in an MP3 player easily, and I can probably switch my XM account to the portable player I bought for Jason before he got his G6. I might not bother, though. That's a bill we can avoid for a while, and I think my account was due to expire soon anyway It's not much, but with the way things are right now, it'll help.

Rawgleflurgle!

So. I've been emailing back and forth with dell's tech support, and I thought I had the problem licked, but now it's giving me the same error it gave after Jason first touched the computer, something about windows failing to restart properly and options to run repair mode or start windows.. I swear, he is death for technology!

I've done about half a dozen things to it, including taking the hard drive out and wiping it off with a cloth. That seemed to work, but then it gave me some more issues. now it -seems- to be okay, except it's installing updates and has been sitting on the same one forever. Ooops! It just clicked to the next one. So. We'll see.

Now I've restarted it a few times, and it seems to be handling it okay. I just set it to hibernate, and am gonna test it again.

*time passes*

Seems like it's fixed. I think. I'll let it sit a while, then try again, but thus far, I'm hopeful. Go me!

*sigh*

So now the laptop I just freaking bought is no longer working. Won't boot, not even from the install disk. Gee. What a freaking surprise, considering the first laptop we bought from Dell had the hard drive crash days after we got it. I'm annoyed, to say the very least. I've got an email in to Dell's tech support, and I've done -everything- I know to do, including trying to boot from a CD and repairing the OS. It looks like something's wrong with the drivers for the hard drive. *growls*

So. Now, I wait. Which annoys the ever-living shit out of me.

Changes

I woke this morning to find my darling husband reading in bed beside me. It was cute. He decided that today was the day we would get the bedroom furniture moved around. So he got up and showered, and we both had breakfast, then went back up to move everything around. I the process we got rid of a bunch of stuff .. several bags of trash and a couple of bags of clothes and stuffed animals I don't need to cling to.

So now the chest of drawers is against the back wall of the closet, the bed is against the opposite wall, and my dresser is against the wall by the closet. In addition, I fixed the ceiling fan. Plus hopefully the rods for the curtains momma gave us will be able to stay up soon, once the goop stuff dries. If not, well, I dunno, but we'll find some way of getting them to stay.

Two Weeks

It has now been twoo weeks since Brandon and I started visiting the gym. Two weeks, and already I can tell a difference. Especially in my energy level. Not just while we're exercising, but all day, really. It feels good, in fact. And while at the very beginning it seemed like even walking 40 minutes was going to be difficult, today I did 40 minutes on the elliptical. With only about a minute rest. And I kept my heartrate where it needed to be. Go me!

This weekend I think is going to be another working around the house weekend. jason wants to do some furniture moving upstairs, which I'm perfectly okay with. We're trying to get a little more room in the room, so moving one the chest of drawers into the closet seems the best option. We'll see, anyway.

*another flop*

Remind me why I'm working out again?

Oh yeah, to feel better. So that must be why I about killed myself doing 17 minutes on the evil that is the elliptical machine. I'm too tired to even properly post, though I really need to do something. I've not even managed to post my workout data from last week. I'll get to it, eventually.

So. Tired.

Workout update:
Thursday I did 1 mile/30 minutes on the treadmil, 2 miles/10-ish minutes on the stationary bike, and .5-ish miles/10 minutes on the elliptical machine. I hate the elliptical machine.

That is all. I'm too tired.

Speaking of clearing spaces

My project for today is going to be clearing out the dresser that's in my office. I'd like to get that done, because then we can move it upstairs - very carefully cos the bitch is heavy - and take the bookcase that's up there now and more -it- down to the office. I think That's a better plan, since this is no longer used as a guest room. I'll have my new desk sometime in mid-July I'm guessing. They're made overseas, so I have to wait for it to arrive and stuff. and while I can't wait to get it finally, I'm kinda glad that I can have the time to clear out more stuff and decide what needs to be kept and what doesn't.

Clearing spaces also fits for my life in another way. I have started going to the gym. I got myself a membership to Planet Fitness, and we - Brandon and I - have gone every day this week. And I -do not- want to go today, but I'm going anyway. Even if I only walk for half an hour, that's better than nothing. And the nothing exercise I'd been getting is doing me no favors. I've actually been really proud of myself. Monday was our first day, and I walked about 45 minutes, for a distance of about 1.25 miles. Tuesday I walked about the same time, but a distance of about 1.75 miles. Yesterday I walked 30 minutes for a distance of 1 mile, but then did 10 minutes and about .5 miles on the elliptical machine. Which let me tell you was awful. I still ache a bit from it. but I can tell the difference in the muscles I used, and I know that I really need to use that particular machine more, once I work up to being able to.

We've decided that we're going to keep going -every- weekday, though we are taking weekends off. i think that's probably healthy. I know it certainly is for me, and Brandon can definitely use the exercise. I'm proud of him. he's really making an effort not to be lazy.

I actually wrote this post 4 hours ago. The internet died then. So I went to the gym. And came back. And it was -still- not working. So we ate lunch - we got Penn Station again. Really yummy! - and I called Comporium. And got someone really un-helpful. But he decided there might be a problem and sent someone out. Of course .. about 5 minutes before the guy showed up, it started working.

But!

The guy wanted to come check things out anyway. And I let him against my annoyed judgement, and I'm glad I did. Turns out, there's a signal issue. And he went outside and fiddled with some things, found some 'loose fittings' and stuff, and came back and said it really helped my signal strength. It's still not perfect, so he said to watch it, and let them know if it happened again. Which is why I'm documenting this now.

*flailing Kermit arms*

Yaaaaay! James got his account back. That makes me inordinately happy. =) He's waiting to hear from a 'Specialist' about having Shinzui un-deleted. I expect, considering the circumstances, that won't be a problem. But he's already said he plans to make a warrior Zui, anyway.

We've started going to the gym. Planet Fitness, which has a really good deal. $20 a month, with guest priviledges. Which means Brandon can go with me for no charge. Jason already has a membership, but he goes in Gastonia. I slept well for the first time in a week, lastnight. I'm going to start taking iron pills too, to try and prevent or alleviate the RLS, but I think the working out might help also.

Success!

Ceiling Fans Purchased: 2
Injuries: 1, so far. (Hurt my thumb on a search for the screw driver.)
Circuit Breakers Tripped: 1, but it got tripped three times.
Ceiling Fans Installed: 2
Missing Charm Bracelets Found: 1

So, we finally ... after piecing together one complete ceiling fan from the parts of two boxes and bringing the rest back to get a repacement ... have ceiling fans installed in my office and in the guest room. Once we got the one in my office done .. which went pretty easily really .. we went to dinner with his folks, then came back to put the other one up. and that went fine, once we rigged a washer because the screw head was too small, and tripped the breaker three times. And the washer search turned out to be a good thing, because I found the charm bracelet I've been missing since we went to NYC. In 2006. It's been missing a year and a half. I was -convinced- I'd left it somewhere. But it appeared in a cigar box that's been sitting on my desk forever.

So, today was, all in all, a success. Tomorrow I hope to get the curtain rods upstairs put up, and the curtains hung. Once that's done, I think all will be well. In about a month I should get my new desk. They're going to come and put it together and everything which is a wonderful thing for me ... so long as I'm not working when they try to come by. We all know how my luck is with that sort of thing.

And now, I think it's time to get some sleep. Somehow I ended up with extra hours tomorrow, for some project I barely understand, but I guess I'll figure it out. Not like the store doesn't always help me, anyway. But I don't wanna be there all day.

Hooray!

Self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas had said that on June 12, 2008 a nuclear war will begin. So .. yeah. He'd said it a couple of times, only to be ... believe it or not .. proven wrong. So .. June 12th has come and gone. And since I'm still here, and I assume you're still here, I can only assume that nuclear war did not indeed break out. So. Happily, we get to celebrate Jason's birthday!

That's right, today, Friday the Thirteenth, is my honey's birthday. And while sadly we did not get our advance copies of the new fantasy novel by Larissa Niec for his birthday, he did get some lovely little things .. and so did I! The little darling sent me some lovely little earrings. Jason and she are determined to turn me into a real girl, I swear it. I've gotten more jewelry in the last two years than I got in the previous twenty.

I'm supposed to be talking about home this month, for NaBloPoMo, and I've been a little slack. But I've actually been kinda busy with stuff I've been doing around the house. Not only did we get the big clunky desk finally out of my room, which made my room seem twice as big as it did before, I've gotten sheers on all the windows downstairs -including- my office, finally, and thile they're a little short, they do the job they're meant to do. We also cleared out a ton of crap out of the house, and just today I got rid of a bunch of boxes and trash and stuff from the whole 'new computer' process. Tomorrow, probably, we're going to put up the curtain rods in our bedroom so we can -finally- have curtains, and possibly even get some new ceiling fans. That is apparently going to be our birthday gifts from Jason's parents.

My mom and dad are giving us a Wii and probably a Wii Fit and stuff for Graduations and my birthday, and Jason's going to get, I think, a nice laptop bag since he's getting a laptop for himself. And I have a little pile of little somethings on his chair for him, waiting for him to come home. I don't know what we're going to do to celebrate other than that, though. We rarely really celebrate birthdays around here. I mean, we do, but we've reached an age where birthdays aren't really 'special' anymore. We'll see what he feels like. he's been working hard at the gym almost every day, so it's hard to do stuff after work, even though he does get our at 5:30 instead of 8-9pm.