Stuology

We are finally in Branson! It took forever between stopping for Ada and then having a tire blow out in Springfield. So, not only is gas expensive, we had to buy a new tire.

My grandparents loved seeing Ada though, even though she was mega grumpy. She didn’t get her normal naptime since she was in the car so long, and we got in after her bedtime. This is the first time that I’ve stayed in my aunt’s house, and if I didn’t have so much stuff to haul the baby, I would fold up all the seats in my SUV and take my aunt’s pantry home with me for my kitchen remodel.

However, I guess I will just take a picture and try to get a pantry just like it.

Thank goodness for unsecured wireless connections. Yippee! Internet!

Now, we are going to soak in the whirlpool tub and go to bed.

I just received a meeting request for a major project at work for Monday Dec. 19th 11:30 am - Tuesday, Dec. 20 4:30 pm. I know they meant to end the meeting at 4:30 pm on Dec. 19th, but instead of the business appropriate response that politely asked the intention of scheduling a 29-hour long meeting, I asked if I should bring my own pillow and sleeping bag.

Thank goodness that I know this person’s sense of humor well enough, but geez, I really should lose the smart-ass sometimes.

Today is our anniversary. Last night, I took Mac out to Pachamama’s for dinner: Spicy Peeky Toe Crab Layered Sushi, Exotic Mushroom and Fingerling Potato Pan Roast, Black Bean Roasted Breast of Duck, and a bottle of 2002 Stoller Vinyard Pinot Noir. Then we shared a Dark Chocolate-Caramel Tart for dessert with a Mochachino for me. Except for the bread*, the food was great! I can’t wait until the next special occasion to go back.

Now, for my present. Here is where the spoiled part comes in. Also, this is where Mac cheated, of sorts. The first anniversary is the paper anniversary. So, Mac printed out pictures of this, this and this. All of those items will be delivered in a little over a week. So, we are going to start work on our kitchen. Taking out the tile and peeling the wallpaper will be really time consuming and expensive. I’m going to cheat and paint over the wallpaper** and leave the tile. We are going to restain the cabinets, but only take off the doors and not the entire cabinet. We will pick out the paint today, and start tearing apart the kitchen. We are going to have to cut into the countertop because our current stove is a drop in and the new stove is freestanding.

We were also not in agreement about which color to paint the dining room/kitchen. Mac said last night, “paint it whatever color you want.”

I have enough chores to keep us busy for while, but I’ll have a bigger fridge, an oven that bakes evenly, all my burners working and a dishwasher that will actually get my dishes clean and not eat my glasses. Just in time for Christmas at our house.

The Take Charge Challenge KC started on Oct. 2nd. I don’t remember how far I am on my goals, I’ll have to look again. One of the daily goals though is to clean up some clutter in your life. I’ve done that with my kitchen, and today I started the daunting task of cleaning my browser bookmarks. Holy cow, they are everywhere and a mess.

So, I’ve joined the ranks as a de.licio.us user, finally. I rearranged the links on Stuology to show the links to my links, and to include new wishlists because I organized those as well. I also took down my Hexic scores because I haven’t played it in a long time. If I could find a version for the Palm OS, I would play it again though. I’ll have to look into that.

Oh, journaling also earns points, so yeah, daily ramblings from me.

Squanto ran away early this evening. My typical routine, close to picking up Ada, I go out and check the mail, and then come back and take Squanto on a short walk. I talked to Squanto when I got the keys for the mailbox. When I got back, I couldn’t find Squanto. The front door was shut and latched, but that isn’t saying that he didn’t jump up on it and push it open. I searched the house. I searched the garage. I searched the neighborhood. I got in my car and drove around the area that we usually walk. I went and picked up Ada, and then I took her for a short walk around the neighborhood yelling for Squanto. He has gotten out before, although not in a few years, but he always came to me when I called. He’s never gone very far. I can’t find him anywhere.

I don’t want my black puppy out wandering in the dark. I want my puppy home. I feel sick.

I’ll start calling vet offices and the humane shelter tomorrow. I just hope that somebody found him and is taking him somewhere. He has his walking harness on and not the collar with his tags.

Please, Lawrence, keep your eyes out for my sweet, little, black puppy-cake.

A co-worker of mine recently resigned to go work on the web team at JCCC. Fine, says I. They will have to backfill that position. He does too much to lose him.

Well, they did backfill that position today: half with me and half with somebody from my old team before they re-orged right before my return from leave. I feel like I have work piled to just above my head now.

So, why, when I have work piled to just above my head am I spending time posting about it instead of working on it? Good question.

Mel: 3
Soda: 0

I’ve given Ada a bath and have her in her feetie jammies and then I took a nice long shower and am in my jammies, so I don’t think that I will cave and go out for soda tonight. I don’t even want it right now, but I did at dinnertime.

Now, I’m going to make myself a big glass of ice water and read to Ada until Mac gets home.

Does anybody want to babysit the weekend of Sept. 30th? I want to go see Serenity. Badly. And I want to take my husband with me.

Oh, my stand mixer is here! Pretty cool for free shipping. It must have been shipped out of Coffeyville, KS.

You know, a hear a lot of people complain about UPS, but I’ve never had a package arrive to me damaged or not at all, and all of my recent UPS delivery people have been nice. My guy now always sets things inside for me if they are heavy or hides it for me if I’m not at home. Really nice UPS man.

So, now I have a phone conference in 15 minutes and then I need to decide what I’m going to make for dinner so I can stop by the store and then I need to get boxes out for eusashead and then go pick up Ada. Oh, I want to clean off my countertops and set up my mixer.

Maybe I will make more cookies tonight if Ada is in good spirits to entertain herself.

Day one without soda: so far, so good. I typically have a 12oz soda with lunch. Today, ice water. No headache, but I had a cup of coffee at breakfast. I should create a cheesy ticker somewhere so I can let everybody see when if I have to reset it.

I also am part of the Take Charge Challenge KC for work, and I think that drinking enough water per day is one of the challenges, so there is another venue to make me more accountable. The next challenge starts October 2nd and goes through December 10th–the day before my birthday. Maybe for my birthday, I can go get a Big Gulp*.

There is a big IT annoucement today at 4:00pm. They already re-orged everybody right before I came back from maternity leave, surely they aren’t doing it again already. That would be a record in my experience. Maybe somebody is leaving, again.