So sleepy

I hung out with Michelle's daughter yesterday while she and her husband had to go to work. Kids are tiring. I was dozing off on the sofa at 9:00. I also was dozing off on the floor while she played with shape sorters around me. Should have taken a nap when she did instead of playing Wii boom blox. :) But it was fun and we had a good time (I think). She didn't cry except when I accidentally turned on tickle me elmo. She's afraid of that. With good reason I think. I see all those kids on the commercials just loving that thing, I can't imagine why. They're kind of scary. Also because of all the mechanics to make it do its thing, you can't really cuddle with it. They have big heavy feet and weird feeling joints. Give me a simple stuffed elmo any day I say. (Or melmo as she says).

One weird thing about Michelle's house... she doesn't have a clock in most of the rooms. At home I have a minimum of one clock per room (except the bathroom because, well that's just weird). Here there isn't one in the family room, the tv room, the bedroom I'm sleeping in. I had to go get my cell phone so I could know what time it was. I'm sure there's actually reasons for some of them... the room I'm sleeping in is about to become Kenna's big girl room so when it gets changed she may put a clock in it (although I don't actually think there's one in her current room either). Maybe I'm just obsessed with time. :) Actually at one point yesterday, I was almost positive it was at least noon and I checked the time and almost cried because it was only like 9:30. That would be a big red flag that I'm not meant to be a stay at home mom. :)

Otherwise the weather is beautiful. Kenna and I went outside twice yesterday and I was totally too warm in my thin sweater. There's no snow on the ground (although when we went to Palmdale to return the lesbian blouses I did see some very small patches of very dirty brown snow along the freeway). And so far a good time is being had. What a nice way to spend Christmas break.

Goals for the New Year

I'm in CA. Yay! Where it is warm. Double yay! Hanging out with a baby, and Michelle and her husband. Triple yay!

I took back most of the tops from my mom and got $77 in Dillards store credit. Luckily they allow you to use it online. Unluckily I think their sizes either run small or accurate because the shirts I tried on were uncomfortably tight in places they shouldn't be. Or maybe that was the style and they were supposed to be tight. I don't know. We had to drive out into the middle of nowhere to go and return stuff.

Anyway, goals for the new year...

1 - No more credit card use starting in February. (It has to be February because from paycheck to paycheck is 6 weeks in January because of the length of January and because we got paid before Christmas).

2 - Take my damn pills every day so my hand stops looking like I have the pox. Since I'm not as careful as I should be with my dietary restrictions I still sometimes get some exposure to gluten and that causes me to break out periodically. I take a daily pill that takes care of that but can't remember to take it every day anymore. Suddenly I have started taking them maybe once a week and I take like 4 at a time. But usually I only remember to take them because my right hand has started to break out. Hence my hand looks like I have the pox.

3 - Finish cleaning my apartment and keep it that way. I'll give it a try. It doesn't usually work out. :)

My mother thinks I'm a lesbian

That's the only explanation I can come up with for the shirts and dress she bought me for Christmas. Not only am I a lesbian, but I'm a 45 year old or older lesbian. AND she bought them at Dillards. We don't even have a Dillards here in Seattle. Guess what we're doing Michelle when I come and visit... (Do you have Dillards in LA?)

In other news, Leavenworth is gorgeous. I'll post pictures when I get around to getting them off the camera. The bus ride was okay and fairly uneventful. Vancouver was a brief trip surrounded by interminable car rides. We spun out on the freeway coming home and went to a hotel to spend the night and get off the freeway. We went to a hotel in Burlington, a Fairfield I think. It was really nice and definitely worth the bucks we spent. In contrast, I'm not 100% certain the hotel we stayed at in Leavenworth was worth it.

Today we got back from Leavenworth (after deciding to spend an extra night) and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We also went to the movies - Seven Pounds. I did not really enjoy it honestly.

Hopefully I will be on a plane on the 26th to CA. (I say hopefully only because due to weather many of our flights have been fucked and there is a slim possibility I may get stranded.)

Let it Snow

The snow has been coming down off and on since Thursday. It is so beautiful. I really love it. My sister is enthralled with it. We went out for manicures and coffee and dinner and it was really coming down. It was really beautiful.

We're off to Vancouver BC tomorrow. I'm excited to go. Tomorrow we're going to Leavenworth via Greyhound. We'll spend the night there. It should be beautiful. I'm pretty excited by that too.

Wednesday we're going to Stephen's for Christmas eve dinner and we're going shopping. And then she goes home on Thursday. Hopefully we'll get the Christmas presents before Christmas and so I won't have to send Mandy's on to Florida.

Again my mother insisted she send them a way that requires my signature. What part of I'm not home during the day to sign for packages is confusing to her?? I thought they were going to redeliver yesterday but they didn't. They may on Monday. I don't know. So peeved by that.

Agog

I got an email today that never in a million years would I have expected. It was an apology from someone from a long time ago. I never posted about the whole incident except for this one which doesn't really tell you anything at all. It is really interesting, though, because the topic came up a couple months ago when I was having lunch with Stephen. He asked me if there was any way I would speak to this person again and I said I didn't know. One of my own failings is that I hold a grudge. I'm well aware I do it and obviously don't care THAT much about it since I still do it. I don't know if this person was apologizing as a means to try to be friends again or because the person is a 12 stepper or because the moon is in retrograde or because the person really just wanted to apologize and then that's it. So I don't know what will happen now, but I guess we'll see won't we.

Sometimes I need a man

Ok so I admit that what I'm about to say is totally not feminist or independent at all but sometimes I would really like a man in my life. Today's reason... it would be nice to have a male to dispose of dead pets. I hadn't seen Tess since some time on Saturday. This has happened before, but I got a bit worried. My biggest fear with regards to Tess was to find her dead in the closet... You know where this is going right? While cleaning my room tonight I figured I had to go looking for her. Sigh. I found her. She was all folded up in an old blanket. I'm taking her to the vet's tomorrow to let them dispose of her body. I'm sad but not as sad as I was when Minka and Baxter died. I think I'd be more sad if I hadn't already been anticipating this for several months now. The biggest sign she was probably dead... there hadn't been poop in my bed since Friday night.

Also it is completely unenvironmental and uncharitable of me, but I threw the blanket she died in in the trash. The blanket was already pretty foul. It had been my sister's and I don't know the last time it had been washed. It sat in the back of my closet for the past 6 years.

Crap

I'm out of time and my apartment is nowhere near neat. I'm not even shooting for neat at this point just less not neat. Sigh. I've just got too much procrastination going on. Plus this week... every evening is busy. I hate that. Now it is 9 pm and all I want to do is go to bed. Is it wrong that I'm considering calling in sick tomorrow? Or maybe Wednesday. :) Blargh I can't call in sick tomorrow I have too much to take in to work. Sigh.

Yum

QFC has redeemed itself (well sort of, if they didn't have what I wanted when I wanted it does the fact they had it the next day make up for it? Not really) but they had chicken which is good. (Unrelated totally, one thing I don't get about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is was the character born an adult? That seems physically difficult for his mother or was he born a baby but then aged rapidly to start aging backwords. Ultimately I don't care that much because I won't bother seeing it. It seems to weird to me.) Back on subject... So I went to QFC tonight to get chicken (still no chips in the bbq flavor I want though) and I cruised the Asian aisle thinking what I was going to do with the chicken and I decided to make Thai red curry. I've never done that before actually so I wasn't sure how it was going to work out. Mostly it was good. It could have used a bit more of the red curry paste though because it was a tiny bit bland. But it wasn't gross and that's usually enough for me. :) Next I have to bake brownies for our work party and I'm going to bake a chocolate chip quick bread for breakfast this week. Yay!

Grocery Store Fail

So I went to my local QFC today to buy chicken for dinner and some chips. They were out of chicken breasts and the type of chips I wanted. How is that possible? It's a grocery store. My only option for chicken was the really fancy (and expensive) free range chicken. They didn't have any boneless skinless anyway. They only had like livers and legs and wings. When I asked the guy at the counter he said they were still recovering from the holiday. What recovering from the holiday? It's chicken and the holiday was a week and a half ago. Seriously. If they weren't the only place I could go to I would go somewhere else. So I got take out because I was so befuddled by the lack of necessities at the grocery store I didn't know what else to do. I was just kind of walking up and down the grocery store aisle like an idiot.

Unrelated I feel like I'm clenching my jaw/teeth too much. I wonder why I do that.

Unrelated to that, I have to make an appt for my annual exam. They have been calling and sending letters and all that because it has been over 2 years. Well the PA I used to see left the practice which is fine I didn't especially like her, but they want me to see my PCP for the exam. It is completely irrational I know but I really don't want her to do it. I need a separate 3rd party checking all that out, not somebody I see for all the other stuff in my life. I know, neurotic and irrational. Add to the list of neuroses, I think I have to have a lady lady parts doctor, I don't think I want a guy poking around. And she has to be old. :) Hmm... I wonder if Group Health can accommodate all that.

I accomplished 1 thing today.

I had a huge list of things to do and yet one thing prevented me from doing them and took me until 6:56 to accomplish. That one thing... a clog in my sink. Two days ago it filled with water and did not drain. I tried draino. I tried a 2nd bottle of draino. Nothing. Yesterday I bought a plunger. I plunged. I poured gross sink water into a bucket and plunged some more. I sustained a chemical burn on my middle finger because I had to hold the plunger in place in the water which was full of draino that hadn't done its job. This morning I got up and plunged some more. I'd take a break between plunging because the draino that was still in the plugged sink would suds up and then I couldn't see to plunge anymore. And finally at 2:30 I gave up and went to the store. Fuck the non-toxic way of doing it, I was going for the hardcore stuff. I have to say that during this time I was getting more and more frustrated with the sink I discovered three other frustrators. 1 - I went into the bedroom to change my socks and discovered that Tess had pooped on my bed AGAIN. This is becoming a thing with her. She's done it 4 times in the past two weeks. I don't own enough sheets for this to become a regular occasion. That pissed me off. 2 - There's a hole in the middle of my fitted sheet. I don't know where it came from but that is one more bottom sheet that is getting dumped in the trash. 3 - I missed a call from Stephen. I'm not really pissed about that because I rarely answer my cell at home BUT the reason I missed it is because one of my scouts changed my ringtone. Not only did she change my ringtone (that I could handle), but she recorded her random notes over the one I had painstakingly put in place several years ago. (My phone is so old it still has the composer feature and I programmed into it the Hedwig's theme from Harry Potter.) I've been using that ringtone for YEARS. That was like the final straw.

So I walked to get tacos for late lunch and bought some CLR and then also foaming pipe snake. One of those was going to work goddammit. I used the CLR power plumber and although I probably used all 15 applications in this one drain it cleared the drain. FINALLY. Now it's time to cook dinner and contemplating changing the sheets yet again. I'm so over that. Of course since I took the water I was scooping out of the sink and dumped it into the tub my tub is probably now clogged. Sigh.

Also I love the Pogues. I was just watching PS I love you and they have several Pogue songs. They're awesome.

My feet are cold

They are cold because I have all sorts of windows open. I have all sorts of windows open because apparently I tried to burn down my kitchen. Luckily I failed. :) My eyes are still watering a bit though. My living room was hazy for quite awhile and now I'm feeling a teeny tiny bit wheezy.

I've got a lot of charity shopping to do in the next couple of weeks. Stephen and Ben and I are going to buy presents for a couple kids off one of the giving trees at the mall. My department is working with other departments and we've adopted a family. Since I'm arranging it, I've assigned my department the mom. Buying for the kids is generally easier than for the adult I think. I still have to buy for Michelle and her husband and her mom and one more present for my dad. I have to wrap all the presents and get them together for shipping. Oh crap and I have to exchange one of the ones I bought for my niece (she has both a birthday and Christmas around the same time so I have to buy both).

I am getting excited about the break. Well not the part where my sister visits (only because I'm not done cleaning and not the part where she visits. I am excited for her to visit but my genuine lazy nature is really fighting my desire not to reveal my true messy nature - heh like she doesn't know... :) ) She wants to go to Vancouver and to Leavenworth. That should be fun I think. I also have to get off my ass and buy my plane ticket for CA. Each day I procrastinate I'm guaranteeing the price is going up. Sigh. Actually, I once read on Farecast.com that the best time to buy a ticket is about this time of night on a Wednesday and they are totally right. I just found a nice cheap ticket for Burbank although Michelle might hate me since the return trip leaves at 8:00 AM. But when I was looking earlier this week, it was going to be about $350 for the ticket. Now I'm paying $250. Yay. Ticket purchased. So on my list to do before 12/21:

1 - Clean the apartment. Seriously.
2 - Purchase presents for Michelle, husband of Michelle and charity
3 - Arrange for Tess & Rigby to stay at the vet tech's for the week I'm gone.
4 - Clean the apartment. Did I mention that?
5 - Haircut on Saturday the 13th
6 - Charity shop with Stephen & Ben