No news IS good news!

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Mindy came home from the hospital today.  I talked to her this afternoon, and she’s doing okay.  Mom is taking care of her.  🙂

John and I went to Annapolis today to hang out with Jess and Chuck.  We had a little bit of a hard time getting started this morning, though.  Last night we went to Joe and Megan’s house for a few hours after work.  We weren’t able to leave work early at all, so we rushed home to let the dogs out and try to run them around for a few minutes before abandoning them again.  (We made sure we put everything edible or valuable as far out of their reach as possible, since it’s days like this when they get destructive.)  We made it to Joe’s house around 7:30 or so.  It was a little bit crazy there, but good crazy.  After the boys went to bed, we sat around in their living room with a fire and talked until about midnight.  I pulled John away with the reminder that we were getting up early the next day to go to Annapolis.  He and Joe have plans to have lunch soon (and hopefully Megan (and the boys) and I get to come along…).  Anyway, we got home and got to bed around 1am.  Got up at seven.  No, the alarm went off the first time at seven.  For a second I thought the clock was wrong – I was WAY too tired for seven am and it was so dark outside!  But we snoozed for about half an hour and then got up.  Snoozing helped.  And I was wide awake and ready to go by the time we hit the road.  Starbucks helped.  Their croissants are really good.  🙂

Jess told me where we should meet them when we got the Academy this morning, and she warned me that even with directions, it might be hard, since there ARE NO STREET SIGNS.  I figured that the only street signs that would be missing would be right at the very end, and I didn’t think it would be a big deal.  I was half-right.  We had street signs until the last two turns, and yes, the two that were missing were right at the end, right at the Academy.  But the Academy is a BIG place.  So we turned too soon, found ourselves across some body of water (not the Severn itself, but something attached to it), turned around at St. John’s College.  Got back on the road we were on, went a little further, didn’t turn on what would have been the right road (because it had no sign) and ended up across the Severn.  I was pretty sure that wasn’t right, so we turned around again.  This time I took that turn onto the right road, but went right by the hall we were supposed to park behind.  I got pointed in the right direction by the gate guard.  And Jess and Chuck showed up just as we were parking our car.  So our getting lost helped with the timing, but still.  Street signs are important!

We got an information-filled (and trivia-filled) tour of the Academy from Chuck.  It’s a very impressive-looking place.  I kinda wish we’d been able to see it filled with middies, but that’s my own fault for waiting until the holiday break to get out there.  We weren’t able to see the chapel (there was a wedding going on), but we wandered through parts of Dahlgren Hall and Bancroft Hall (which is HUGE!), and much of the grounds.  Some of the grounds.  Saw the mast from the USS Maine.  There’s all kinds of cool stuff just laying around.  John took some pictures, but I haven’t looked at them yet, so I don’t know what he got.  After our tour, we headed into downtown Annapolis for a little bit of wandering and some lunch.  I love that kind of historic downtown shopping district.  Fun to just window shop and people-watch.

After lunch, Jess and Chuck took us to the bookstore with the dragon in the children’s section.  I really like that kind of bookstore.  It’s basically in an old house, sort of shotgun style, with a step up to each room as you go further towards the back.  Not very big, but cozy and crammed full of books.  That’s basically what I want, although I think I want it on a slightly larger scale.

Oh!  On our way to lunch, we were walking by this hotel and Chuck muttered something about wanting us to go in and see their heating system.  We all looked at him like he was crazy.  We should know by now that he is, but he certainly steers us in the direction of some really interesting stuff.  This hotel apparently used to be heated by hypocaust (an underground heating system used by the Romans), but no one at the hotel knew it until they were doing some renovations.  So there’s a room off the lobby with a glass floor so visitors can look under their feet and see part of the ducts used to move the heated air around.  It was really cool.  But walking on the glass floor unnerved me and Jess a bit.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with Jess and Chuck (as usual – thanks, guys!) and can’t wait to see them again.

We were home before 3:30 this afternoon, and we’ve done very little since.  Actually, that’s not true.  We put up the tree and decorated it, and we’ve talked to almost every member of John’s family and helped them all with gift ideas.  🙂  So now I’m waiting for the pizza we ordered to arrive, and then we’ll watch a movie (maybe Dan in Real Life, maybe Brokeback Mountain – I know, I know.  Very different movies.).  Tomorrow, we have to finish our Christmas shopping.  At least we know what we’re looking for.  Mostly.

Morning shift

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It’s a yucky misty day.  Not so bad at work, but outside is unpleasant.  Work is actually kinda…not fun, but not aggravating.  I’m busy (still testing), but the end is in sight.  A lot of people aren’t here today (not on our team, but in the rest of the office), so things are pretty quiet.  We just had a short staff meeting (the best kind) and everyone was fairly pleasant.  We all still have our senses of humor.

I went back to that cake and candy supplies store so I can make more peppermint bark.  I also got some milk chocolate, toffee pieces, and malted pieces.  That should be delicious.  🙂  I will play on Sunday.  The woman at the counter this time was very pleasant, not like her surly counterpart from my first visit.  (“Surly” is a good word.  I should use it more often.)

We’re heading to Joe’s place tonight to hang out with him and Megan, but it’s looking more and more likely that we won’t get out of here as early as we were hoping.  I was planning on staying until 5 or 5:30 anyway because of today’s deadline, but John had planned on getting out around 4 (we came in at 8 this morning) so he could go home and take care of the dogs before coming back to get me and head to Joe’s.  Unfortunately, he had a rather busy morning, so he may not be able to leave that early.  We’ll see.

The rumor yesterday evening was that Mindy might get to go home from the hospital today.  I have no idea if that came to pass or if it’s likely to, since I haven’t heard a peep from anyone in my family today.  I can only assume nothing bad has happened and that she’s not any worse.  Everyone is pretty quick to get in touch if there’s something I should be worried about.  (NOT a criticism.)  I think, in this case, no news is good news.

It’s flour.

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Tasted the cookies again today.  The weird taste of something that didn’t get mixed in all the way is flour.  I just have no idea how that happened.

The office holiday party was today.  I wore my new black boots.  That’s really the only noteworthy thing about it.  And of course, that’s only noteworthy to me.

I wrote most of my holiday cards tonight, so they can go in the mail tomorrow.  John wrote a few, too, and he wants to take responsibility for two of the ones on my list.

We have to be at work early tomorrow (and then I’ll have to stay a little late since we have a submission deadline), so I’m heading for bed.

This post does not flow at ALL.  Kinda sucks, actually.  Sorry about that.  🙂  If I have time at work tomorrow, I’ll do better.  Well, I won’t fix this post.  I’ll just aim higher for the next one.

Good night.

Last dentist appointment of the year

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[Around noon.]

I feel like I got punched in the mouth.  Right side only.  The numbness has worn off and the ibuprofen has not yet kicked in.  Aside from that, it was another very pleasant trip to the dentist.  (Oxymoron, right?)  I think I will bake them cookies.  When I got there this morning, the front desk staff told me I was the Patient of the Month and gave me a bag full of goodies.  They gave me a travel mug, some Ghirardelli hot chocolate, some other chocolates, and some toothpaste.  🙂  If they hadn’t included the toothpaste, I would have thought they were just trying to give me cavities and make me come back.

I learned something today (while at the dentist).  They put adrenaline in the novocaine (or whatever they use now as the anesthetic).  Apparently, the numbing slows down your heartbeat, so they put a little adrenaline in there to keep that from happening.  Instead, your heart starts to race a little.  So I kept thinking I was reacting (belatedly) to my nervousness about getting that shot, but really it was just the adrenaline THEY added.  Totally weird.  Today I was so jittery I could feel my hands and arms shaking.  But only for a minute or two after the shot.  I do still dread the shot, but I don’t worry about the actual procedures anymore.  They’ve convinced me they’re not going to hurt me.

[At home this evening.]

My cookies failed.  I make darn good cookies, but something went awry tonight.  And I didn’t realize it until John came home and tried one.  I actually stayed out of the batter and away from the cooling cookies.  They’re not bad, but I can’t give them to people.  I have a cookie reputation to uphold.  They taste like something didn’t mix in very well.  Possibly the baking soda.  John says he’ll eat them.  🙂  So I’ll just have to try again sometime.  But this means I can’t bring cookies to the dentist office.  Is it bad form to bring them peppermint bark?  Hard, crunchy candy is supposed to be the worst thing for teeth, right?  I might do that anyway.  Because white chocolate and peppermint is hard to resist, even for dental hygienists.  🙂

Mom is on her way to Louisville to help Mark take care of Mindy.  Actually, she may have landed by now.  Mindy is still in the hospital, but hopefully not for too much longer.  Dad said he talked to her this afternoon and she sounded much better.

Still waiting, but NOT worrying

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I have resolved to do no more worrying.  (About Mindy in the hospital, anyway.  I make no such promises about anything else.)  She’s in good hands, she has pain medication, Mark is with her, she’ll be okay.  She’s staying there tonight and at least until she sees the doctor tomorrow.  Then they’ll decide when she can go home.  I hope she’s feeling better, I hope she’s not worried anymore.  I don’t want her to be scared.  The hard part is over.  Easy for me to say, I know.

Details are very important.

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Mindy’s surgery went fine.  She’s recovering.  But at third hand (Mark told Mom, Mom told me), she had a rough night.  What does that mean?  Probably pain.  I would expect some pain after surgery, but was this unexpected?  More pain than usual?  Different pain?  Is it related to the infection?  Mark hadn’t seen the doctor yet when Mom talked to him, so hopefully more information will be filtered down to me once that happens.  She’s still in the hospital, so whatever it is, she’s in the right place.  I just want to know if this is normal or not.  I want to know that the doctors know what it is and are working on it.

I don’t want her to be in pain, and I don’t want her to be scared.

Worrying won’t do me any good.

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Nothing happened today.  I have to post something without the crutch of actually having an event to write about.

How about this?  I am super excited about our day in Annapolis this weekend.  Hmm.  That doesn’t sound like me.  I mean, yes, I’m excited, but I don’t usually say I’m “super excited” about anything.  🙂  “I’m very much looking forward to it” sounds stilted.  But the sentiment is the same.  I get to hang out with Jess and Chuck for a few hours, go on a tour of the Naval Academy, see Annapolis all decked out for Christmas, and have yummy fish and chips.  Oh, and I get to see this mysterious bookstore with a dragon in it.  What could be better?

I’m hoping to have all holiday shopping (what little we’re doing) done by then.  John and I will probably try to go to the mall Thursday after work.  We only have a couple of things left to get.  I ordered as many things as possible online so I could avoid going to the mall.  I don’t mind the crowds, but parking is a pain.  And it drives John crazy.  🙂  He hates circling for a parking spot.

Well.  Mom just called.  Mindy is in the ER for an emergency appendectomy.  I started to get upset, but this is not a life-threatening surgical procedure.  She’s been there for a few hours already this evening (for tests), so at least she was in the right place when the doctors determined this was necessary.  Mom says the doctors promised Mark they’d be able to tell him something in less than an hour.  I’m not sure what that means, exactly.  Does it mean they’ll be done that quickly?  Or that they’ll know about how long it will take by then?  Or that they’ll know how long she’ll have to be in the hospital recovering?  I have no idea.  But when Mark calls Mom, Mom will call me.  So I will try not to worry.

In other news, if you haven’t seen Keeping the Faith (and you like romantic comedies), you should see it.  It’s actually funny, which is something you can’t say about many romantic comedies.  Ed Norton, Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman.  Good movie.  That’s one I always watch if it’s on TV (I just caught the end), and I never feel sullied (to steal Chuck’s term) afterward.  It’s just a good movie.

Yeah, I can’t keep babbling about random things right now.  Mindy in the hospital, Mindy in surgery trumps everything else I can think of.  So I’m going to post this and fret offline.

[On a side note, the spell-checker suggest Elvina as a replacement for Elfman.  How is that more of a word than Elfman?]

Sunday

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I’m not crazy about Sundays.  I spend too much time worrying about wasting the rest of my free time.  Take today, for instance.  We slept in, which was very nice, got up a little after 10 (I think), had breakfast around 11, watched some episodes of Mad About You, and went out around noon to get haircuts and buy holiday cards.  We’re back, it’s not yet 2 o’clock, and I feel like so much of the day is gone already.  It doesn’t help that the sun goes down before 5pm now.  I don’t really have anything else to do today, so I should just relax and enjoy it.  And I will.  Eventually.  I’m going to run (which should be interesting; it’s pretty windy today), and then shower, and then curl up on the couch and start on these holiday cards.  We got our first one yesterday.  I was going to check out the new Bloom’s that just opened in the neighborhood (I need contact solution) and maybe get something for dinner.  Maybe I should do that before I run so I don’t have to go out again.  Maybe I should run to the store.  🙂

(A couple of hours later…)

I did.  I ran to the store.  It’s not even a mile away (I think).  Getting there was easy.  And I wasn’t buying much.  So I just grabbed my wallet and put it in one of those cloth grocery bags, rolled it up, and carried it in one hand.  It was certainly chilly and windy, but I was warm enough while running.  And I was immediately overheated when I walked into the store.  I managed.  Anyway, I grabbed what I needed, checked out, and headed home.  It’s a LOT harder to run home with a bag full of stuff.  It wasn’t heavy (maybe 5 or 6 pounds), but hanging the bag from my shoulder meant it was bumping against my hip with every step.  I tried cradling it in my arms in front of me, but that was awkward, too.  So I ended up walking most of the way home.  I think next time I’ll try a backpack.

Now it’s about 5 o’clock.  We ensconced on the couch with our cheese and crackers.  John is trying to install a game on his laptop.  I will probably read.  Catch you later.

Neighbors

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I finally saw the inside of our neighbor’s house.  Now that she’s moving, she’s suddenly friendly.  No, that’s not fair of me.  She was always friendly, but it was more of a talk-to-each-other-over-the-fence-in-the-backyard friendly, not so much invite-me-into-her-house-to-chat friendly.

This neighbor (let’s call her Stella) was the seller’s real estate agent when we bought our house.  She adopted two kids from Russia (a boy and a girl) who came home for the first time just a few days after we moved in.  They were 5 and 9 years old.  She already had a son (also adopted, I found out today, but from Ukraine, not Russia, and as a baby, not a walking, talking child) who was about 6 when the other two came home.  And I think she has an adult son (stepson maybe?).  I’ve met him several times, he works with her as a real estate agent, shares her last name, and sometimes lives with her.  Maybe he’s her much younger brother.  I never asked.  Anyway.

Stella put a for-sale sign up in her front yard less than a week ago.  I’ve wanted to ask her about it, but, like I said earlier, we’re not exactly the kind of neighbors who just knock on each others’ doors to chat, so I was waiting until I caught her outside.  Tonight I took the dogs for a run, and on our way back, we met her two dogs.  No leashes, no kids, no Stella in sight.  (She is also the neighbor whose dogs routinely get out of her house and yard and wander the neighborhood.  She doesn’t always notice.  Oh, and these are the dogs (Ginger and Bear) who bark.  And bark.  And bark.  And bark.)  They’re nice dogs, and I was pretty sure they’d follow me home, since I had Roxy and Riley with me to hold their interest.  I got them into Stella’s backyard (the gate was open), threw my dogs in the house, and went over to her door to let her know her dogs were back (in case she was worried (assuming she knew they were gone, of course)).

Stella greeted me at the door with an immediate, “Come in, come in!” – something she’s never done before.  So I went in.  She showed me the house from top to bottom (and it looks great), and we sat in the kitchen and chatted.  She said she decided to sell her house now because if she waits any longer, the price will go down below what she paid for it.  So she’s basically breaking even by selling now.  Depressing.

I’m not sure what my point is here.  Oh!  Well, this may not have been my point, but the house sold on the second day.  I didn’t think anyone was able to sell that quickly right now.  And her price was not THAT low.  She’s closing at the end of January and moving by the end of March.  I should have asked her what the buyers are like.  Didn’t think of that until I got back home.

When I woke up this morning, you were on my mi-i-i-i-ind

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I woke up today with a much sunnier outlook.  It’s Friday (woo!), the sun is trying to come out, I’ve been watching what I’ve been eating for the past two days and as a result, I have lost two of those pounds I gained back, Mom and Dad are on their way back to the States, and it’s the weekend!  It’s worth mentioning twice because I have a lot to do and will have time to do it this weekend.  I will finish shopping this weekend.  I will also get my earrings fixed.  John bought me these beautiful emerald and diamond earrings for my birthday this year, but the first time I tried to wear them, I found that one of the clasps won’t latch.  There’s nothing to keep that earring from falling out of my ear.  I want to wear them on Thursday (office holiday luncheon), so I need to get them fixed.

Hey, in case any of you were in doubt, Mom gives good advice.  Especially when one is overly emotional.  Mindy jumped right on the emotional crazy train with me and told me exactly what I wanted to hear (which is great for validation – thanks, Min!), but Mom told me what I should do.  And she was right.  So that’s what I did.  And now that the crazy train has pulled into the station (had enough of this metaphor?), I’m glad I listened to her.  Well, that was yesterday (and yesterday’s gone).  Today everything is sunshine and light.  🙂  That may be going a bit far.

John’s sleeping in this morning, so I need to take care of the dogs and get my butt to work.

Too much TV

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I have completely forgotten what I was going to write about tonight.  Work was okay today.  It was nice having John there for the afternoon, even though he wasn’t very happy about it.  Yes, he’s still sick.  He seems to be doing slightly better (he’s not as dead on his feet), but he says he feels a little worse than yesterday.  His project is due tomorrow, so he and Greg are trying to put the final touches on it.  Then he can collapse.  He can sleep in tomorrow and then come to work in the afternoon again.  And then I will force him to rest all weekend.  Hopefully, he’ll be  better next week.

Ooh, the “Festivus” episode of Seinfeld is on.  I’ve been watching a lot of TV this week.  I only have a handful of shows that I DVR and watch regularly, but I really will watch almost anything that’s on.  A handful?  Let’s see.  In no particular order, I watch True Blood, Fringe, 30 Rock, My Name is Earl, Heroes, The Mentalist, and Lost.  I think that’s it.  And Eureka.  So it’s a handful and a half.  Seven hours of TV a week, except that their seasons don’t all run at the same time.  So it’s never more than six hours a week.  John watches all of those shows with me except Fringe.  And we tend to watch them on weekends, never live.  So why have I been watching random TV every night this week?  What’s wrong with my book?

It’s been raining all day, and every time we let the dogs out, we have to convince Roxy to leave the deck.  She’ll stand in the middle of it, in the rain, but we can’t get her to go down the steps without going out there with her.  And this last time we let her out, we couldn’t get her to come back in.  When she finally decided she was ready, she was completely soaked.  I just don’t understand this dog.

Maybe something will happen tomorrow and I’ll have something to write about.  🙂  Or maybe I’ll just be more focused and able to write something that isn’t boring.  I’ll try harder.  Tomorrow.

Recognizing that I’ve fallen off the wagon

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I feel somewhat down today.  I’ve been trying to figure out why.  I’m sure it’s partly because John has been sick.  It’s hard for me to feel upbeat when John is miserable.  And because he’s been sick, he hasn’t been at work, and the office atmosphere is different.  I haven’t been running.  I have all kinds of excuses (temps in the teens, sleepless nights ’cause John is sleepless, rain this morning), but it still boils down to not running.  I feel better when I run regularly, and I haven’t been doing that for a while.  I also haven’t been watching my eating as much.  I need to get back to my good habits from the summer.  That combination (no running, not being careful about eating) has one MAJOR consequence for me.  I have put somewhere between 5 and 7 pounds back on.  Yeah, I know that’s not really a lot, but it means the scale is going in the wrong direction!

I behaved myself at breakfast and lunch today, but those are usually not my problem meals.  It’s dinner.  It’s always dinner.  But I’m going to Subway tonight so I can be good.  6″ turkey on wheat with spicy mustard and green peppers.  It’s calling out my name.

I can do this.

I will watch just about anything on TV. Pathetic.

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John is braving the great outdoors to go to class tonight.  He met Greg before class to work out some issues with their project, so hopefully he won’t have to stay late.  He was considering skipping class, but I know he feels like he needs the review. He told me this morning that he felt like he’d been beat up.  I don’t think he really improved much today.  So he’ll stay home again tomorrow.

This morning was kind of a disaster.  Last night, when John decided he was probably staying home today, he said he didn’t think he had a shift, but he wasn’t sure.  I told him that I had looked at the schedule (I did, I swear) and that he definitely didn’t have a shift, but I would doublecheck.  Then I forgot to doublecheck.  So naturally, shortly after I left the house this morning,  I got a phone call from Dan (coworker) wondering where John was.  Apparently, he had the morning email shift.  Oops.  It’s so unusual for him to have the morning shift!  I covered it for him, but he’s still kind of in the doghouse with the boss since it’s really bad form to skip out on a shift without arranging for someone to cover.  I tried to take full responsibility for it by explaining to our boss how I essentially (but unknowingly) lied to him last night.  It may have helped.  Not sure.

People in toothpaste and mouthwash commercials have the whitest teeth.  Totally unrealistic.  How many people do you know with really white teeth?

I’m watching a dumb movie.  Just because it’s on TV.  I just can’t help it.  I mean, if there was a show on that  I liked, I would watch that instead.  But even Law & Order has abandoned me.  And I think my Tuesday night shows are done until after the New Year.  What movie am I watching?  Ten Things I Hate About You. No, wait, I actually like that movie.  It’s that other movie with the number 10 in it.  How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Not a good movie.  But Kate Hudson is likable (in other movies), and Matthew McConaughey is nice to look at (in all movies).  The movie is near the end, and I’m supposed to feel sorry for her?  She did every annoying thing she could think of to make the guy dump her, and then her feelings are hurt when she finds out he didn’t really care about her?  Please.  Except, of course, they both fell in love while during the hellish week they spent together.  Whatever.  And yet, I’m watching it.

It’s over.  I feel dumber.

Today is dragging…

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Seriously, today seems to be taking forever.  I have work to do, but I haven’t been able to do it because I got sidetracked by other work that I really don’t want to do.  But it has to come first.  So delaying the work I don’t want to do is delaying the work I really should be doing.  Notice I didn’t say that the work I don’t want to do is delaying the work I do want to do.  That just doesn’t exist.  🙂  Well, I’m sure it does, just not at this job.

Okay, the work I didn’t want to do is done.  Now I have to do the other stuff.

Poor John

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Work today was kinda hard (one person missing) and kinda normal.  Which made it weird.  I spent the day getting up to speed on the project our missing person had been working on so I can take over as lead.  I was the lead on it last year, so it wasn’t that hard, but I’ve been completely unplugged from that whole project for more than two months, so it’s a bit of a shock to shift over to that way of thinking all of a sudden.  We start testing tomorrow.  It’s going to be busy, but in a tedious way, not a time-flies way.

John didn’t go to work today and probably won’t go tomorrow.  He has a sore throat.  Painful.  He couldn’t sleep much last night.  I got up to find the cough medicine and get him more water around 3:30.  And let the dogs out.  They go nuts if we come downstairs in the middle of the night.  He went to the doctor this morning.  He doesn’t have strep, but he does have a sinus infection, and they prescribed him cough medicine with codeine.  So he’ll sleep well tonight.  🙂  He was supposed to rest all day, but he didn’t really.  He was home and on the couch all day, but he was messing with his laptop (linux problems) most of the time.  Hopefully he’ll rest more tomorrow.

Shoe sales are TOTALLY AWESOME

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How’s that for enthusiasm?  I went to the outlet mall today to finally shop for my boots.  I bought boots.  🙂  I went to Naturalizer first, and they were having INCREDIBLE sales.  Have you ever bought a pair of knee-high boots for $40?  I have.  🙂  But I didn’t buy them immediately.  I asked them to hold a pair of black boots for me.  I checked out Easy Spirit and Nine West (nothing I liked) and then went to Clarks-Bostonian.  I couldn’t decide if I wanted to buy black or brown boots (I have more stuff that goes with black boots, but that sweater dress I bought would look great with brown), so I was just checking everything out.  Clarks had the most perfect, most comfortable (of course) pair of black boots.  On sale naturally, because everything’s on sale right now.  So I bought them.  Then I went back to Naturalizer because I wanted those $40 boots in brown.  They didn’t have them in brown in my size!  Boo!  But the salespeople told me I could order them, same price, and have them delivered at home.  🙂  So I will get them in a week or so.  I’m so very happy.  🙂  Now I want more clothes to go with my awesome boots.

Electronic drumsets are SO cool!

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We went to Melodee Music (in Sterling) and went directly to the drum section.  They had four electronic drumsets set up, but they were roped off with a sign saying to ask for help.  We didn’t have go very far, though, before a store employee showed up.  VERY helpful.  If he works on commission at all, I can see why.  The cheapest drumset (which is apparently for beginners or kids) is on sale for $800.  The two he demonstrated for us (and then let us play) were the upper two, on sale for $2000 and $3600.  That shouldn’t count as “on sale”.  But whatever – they were both REALLY cool and lots of fun to play.  We played Roland sets.  There are plenty of other companies making these, but I haven’t done any research to find out how much they go for and who makes the best ones.  I really haven’t done any research at all.  And because of the price for the upper level models (the ones with the most flexibility, the ones both John and I would prefer to have), this will be a future purchase.  But it’s so cool.  🙂  They have presets so you can change the sound of the entire set or of each pad individually.  The bigger ones have room to add on pieces, and because it’s electronic, you can plug the whole thing into a computer, so John could use it for his studio.

We finished playing around on the drums and John found a guitar to try out.  He wasn’t really crazy about it, but he says that may have been because of the amp he was playing through.  Also, the strings were too thin (lightweight, maybe?) or something.  I was sitting on a stool in the same room, half-listening, half-daydreaming.  I have no idea now what I was thinking about, but I was entertaining myself.  Apparently, I looked bored out of my mind, so John decided one guitar was enough to try today and said we could leave.  I didn’t realize he did that for me until we were most of the way home, though.  I just thought he was done.  I didn’t mean to look bored.  I was just deep in thought.  Honest.  🙂

We’re settling in for the night with a fire, a movie, and dinner.  And for the record, I did run today.

Almost talked ourselves into not leaving the house today.

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John and I were just discussing where we might need to go to get some shopping today, when we realized (duh) that we really can do all of this online.  So then we decided not to go.  Until John realized that Melodee Music is open and they have this guitar he was thinking about and he wants to play it.  And I can mess around on an electronic drumset.  So we ARE going out.

35°  Look!  The degree symbol!  I had to paste it in from Word.  Jess – go to Insert, Symbol, and then at the bottom of the Symbol box, type 0176 in the Character Code field and choose ASCII (decimal) from the dropdown menu in the next field.  So you can insert it in to the Word doc and paste it into your blog post.  There’s supposed to be a keyboard shortcut (CTRL 0176), but it can only be used on the keypad, and I don’t have one on my laptop.  (At least, that’s why I think it’s not working for me.)

Not the greatest Friday

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Today started out boring and got…not boring.  Interesting.  But not the good kind of interesting.

I ran this morning (just two miles with the dogs) and it was cold enough that I could try out my new winter running clothes.  All that moisture-wicking stuff.  Worked great!  Well, I don’t know about the wicking, but it was an effective extra layer.  I wasn’t really cold.  Okay, review’s over.

Now for the not-boring part.

One of our friends at work got fired laid off today.  He didn’t get any notice.  It was one of those Friday afternoon bombshells.  John found out when he asked for boxes so he could pack up his office.  The last time our boss laid people off, she gave them two weeks.  That was over a year ago, when the economy was much stronger.  And that is just one of the many things that bother us about this whole thing.  I was about to list other things, but because I’m deliberately being vague about this, the list lacks substance.

Our boss came to each of the rest of us to tell us what happened and to reassure us that our jobs are safe.  It’s hard to believe that.  We’re not really worried, exactly, but it’s better to be prepared.  I’m pretty confident that we’ll have jobs at least through the rest of the fiscal year.

Anyway, John is outright angry.  It’s going to be an interesting weekend.  But thankfully, it IS the weekend.  In some ways, this has been a long week (TWO dentist appointments!), and in others, it’s gone pretty quickly.  No matter how I look at it, though, I’m tired.  We don’t have any major plans – well, I don’t.  John is meeting his project group Sunday morning.  I would like to get some holiday shopping done, although we’ll probably be scaling back on that, compared to other years.

I feel like we should be more careful (financially) that we’re being right now.  We’re not in any trouble, but SO many other people are that I think we should just be, well, more careful.  Who knows what could happen?  Especially after today.  So I’m thinking the big present idea I had for John might be off the table this year.  And if he’s planning on spending a lot on me, I’ll try to talk him out of it.  I’m worried about the what-ifs.  (Because I always have to have something to worry about.  Just ask John.  Or Mom.  It’s just that money isn’t usually it.  And it isn’t even it right now.  I feel like I should be worried about it.  So I am.)

I’m still going to have a nice weekend.  The no-major-plans part will help a lot.  I can just relax while John works on his project.  I can clean up our bedroom (which looks like a hurricane struck), maybe finally clean out the closets (although that might be too ambitious for this weekend), read, listen to the new Christmas albums that just got delivered, RUN – I have to run.  I keep saying that, but that’s only because I really mean it.

John and I ordered Chinese food tonight because his throat is starting to get scratchy and he wanted wonton soup (Mom, did you catch that?  He wanted SOUP(!) for his sore throat.).  We watched an episode of Rescue Me, and then his mom called.  They’re discussing the best way to crop our winning family picture, I’m assuming for Christmas cards.  Or maybe just to go in Christmas cards.  And that reminds me.  Last year, John and I sent holiday cards.  Actually, we made two lists.  One list was cards for me to send, and one was for him.  John never did get around to sending any on his list.  I sent all of mine, but here’s the problem: I didn’t keep the list.  I don’t know who I sent cards to last year.  I know some of them, but I’m sure I can’t remember all of them.  Here’s a thought.  If I sent you a holiday card last year, send me your address again.  🙂  I can’t believe I didn’t keep the list.  I can only think of seven or eight that I’m sure I sent.  And I’m sure I sent more than that.  So….if you don’t get a card from me this year, and you got one last year, I’m sorry.  I’m not snubbing you.  If you didn’t get a card from me last year, then yes, I am snubbing you.  🙂

Fighting that lazy feeling

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I ran this morning!  It feels like more of an accomplishment than it should.  I mean, I should be running almost every day, so the fact that I ran this morning shouldn’t feel so momentous.  I need to get back into the habit.  Whatever, I still did good.  I ran three miles today, no walking.  Usually, when I’ve taken this much time off, I have to add a couple of short stretches of walking.  Except for about a week’s worth of slow 2-mile jaunts with the dogs and two 3-mile workouts by myself (including today’s), the only running I’ve done in the last few weeks has been the races (three in November).  I’ve been lazy since the end of October.  I just reread that list of what I’ve done and it doesn’t come across as all that lazy, but to put it another way, I’ve gone running about 12 times in 6 weeks.  I should have gone running about 30 times (5 days a week, 6 weeks).

With colder weather coming, though, I’ll need to change my routine.  I should do that anyway.  Add strength training, something like that.

Well, I have to get ready to go.  Dentist appointment today (left side deep cleaning!  Woo!) and then work.  Exciting stuff.