No wonder I always feel so rushed...

Would someone please remind me to slow down? Here's this week's
schedule, on top of the 50+ hr week at work...

Monday night: babysit 3 year old for friends (Keira's awesome and we
love her to death, and she thinks we're waaaay more fun than daddy!)
Tuesday night: 3 hours of homework and lectures
Wednesday night: dinner and Crackasonne with Carrie and Saul, and most
importantly, we finally got to meet Yvie!
Thursday night: 4+ hrs of lectures and homework (tonight)
Friday night: Dinner with the J gang et al
Saturday morning: lectures and homework
Saturday afternoon: run D&D game (um, I haven't found any prep. time
in this schedule yet...)
Saturday evening: dinner and games with Pat and Laura
Sunday morning: housework and any remaining homework
Sunday afternoon/evening: Randi and John (hopefully) finally manage to
get out here with all of us happy, healthy and safe!

Phew!

Some quick photos

I've spent a fair bit of time the last two weeks getting the downstairs bedroom setup as a study/library/craft room. And now, at last, I have a dedicated stitching space, complete with a new stitching chair! :) I have to get another footstool, and given how long I've been looking for one I like, I think I may end up making them myself. But I'll wait until it's warm enough to use the garage to do that!

I decided to let myself do some stitching for myself, mixed in with all the obligation stitching. I've joined a TW stitchalong and decided to start The Unicorn. Below is a photo of it after 5 hours of work. It's a few of the flagstones of the path, and it doesn't look like much, but I'm pleased with the progress.



Next up is Jen and Joe's wedding gift. Given that they're approaching their third wedding anniversary, I need to get cracking. In my defense though, I only got my hands on the pattern last fall. It's Arelate Studios' Te Amo, and Jen had planned on stitching it herself for their wedding. I'm starting in on it once I hit post. It's a quick, fun stitch, and doesn't need nearly the level of light and comfort of the TW. I expect it'll grow much quicker than The Unicorn! :)



And finally, a photo of our stockings from Christmas morning. We don't tend to do a lot of gifts for each other anymore, but I always look forward to seeing what Brian's come up with for my stocking. Mine's the bear one on the left (hanging on my dresser so it's there when I wake up in the morning), and Brians' are the two on the right. I stitched the farthest right one for him a few years ago and still love how it turned out.

Happy New Years Everyone

Just a quick update, I've lots more to type, but I'm going to bed soon. We're surviving but have been pretty sick over the holidays. Brian's got a very bad case of bronchitis, and went back to work too soon. Now he's off again, for at least 2 more weeks this time. He was coughing so hard New Years Eve that he tore the cartilage in his ribs! So, not good, but we're both starting to get better, and he's definitely getting much better.

As a result of being sick, and not taking any time off work, none of my holiday projects got done. But I did try to flake out, and I needed that. My next course starts this week, and it looks like we're going to have a great professor. At the very least we've had as much communication from him already as we did for the whole term last term!

I'm making a serious effort to manage my time better and get more organized. I *have* the time to do everything I want to do, it's just a matter of using my time effectively and not wasting it. A big part of this is making sure I get to bed on time and making the time to go early enough to read a half hour once there. I need that wind down time. Wish me luck!

Oh, and to publicly acknowledge, my weight on New Years Day was 205. I'm down 25 lbs from the point where I decided to fix it, and I'm pleased. I've a ways to go, but I'm getting there. That deserves a full post on its own, but who knows when I'll get to it! :)

Photos!

Was it wrong of us to laugh at poor Percy trying to see out the patio doors or at least figure out what was going on?



Out the same patio doors. The brown bits to the bottom right are the tops of our chairs, folded up and leaning against the table for the winter



Brian wanted to make sure I knew which spot I parked my car in 'cause he wasn't sure he'd be able to tell from a quick look out the front window.




This window is the opposite side of the house to the patio door. And the drifts come up all the way to the sill!



And last, but not least, don't you like my fabulous wrapping job on this present yesterday?

And as of noon today

The flurries have finally started!
Better late than never.
Wohooooooooooo!

It's kind of fun to do the impossible
- Walt Disney

WOHOOOOOOO!!!!

I know most of my friends just shake their heads and say I'm nuts, but
I am so thrilled. They're forecasting up to 18 inches of snow this
weekend! I don't expect we'll actually get that much, but I'll post
photos if we do, and I am thrilled!

A Long Delayed Update

So, have we been busy? Yes. Abnormally so, even for us? Yes. Is this
truly something you didn't expect from me? No.

Going back to school is a great thing (I think) but it certainly has
cut down on the amount of time I have for hobbies, one of which is
updating this blog. I've found I'm spending ~8 hrs/week on the school
stuff just to keep up with lectures. That doesn't include time
reading the textbook, or working on assignments. Speaking of which, I
turned in all three of my term papers yesterday. Yes, you read that
righ, three term papers for one course. All due within a week of the
final. Which I'm taking Monday. Wish me luck. I know I'm better
prepared for it than I was for the midterm, but there is an incredible
amount of detail to be absorbed. In just this half term, we covered
40 techniques. All of which I need to understand how they work, what
they measure, in what range etc. I see a stack of cuecards coming.
Actually, I've started on them, which is how I know there are 40 of
them! The hard part is figuring out what needs the rote
memorization... Remind me again why I wanted to go back to school?

So, with that time sink, there went most of my crafting time. I have
one stitching project going, which is a Christmas gift, and so should
be posted soon, except it's been stashed somewhere from our madcap
trip home*. I'm really hoping I haven't left it at my MIL's house
because if I did, it certainly won't be done! I haven't been taking
time to stitch so I could get school stuff done. I've been so slack
on birthday cards this year it's disgusting. Maybe during term break
(three whole weeks off!) I'll premake a bunch of them. And my Google
Reader is just informing me I have >1000 things awaiting me... I'm
afraid to know how many more!

*Madcap trip home. So, my plan for Thanksgiving weekend was to have 4
days to study, write my term papers, and finish the stitchy gift.
Brian would be working a lot of it and I'd have the place to myself.
Except they've just changed his boss at Gamestop (another long story
there, grrrrrrrr) and Brian wasn't scheduled at all. So suddenly we
had a 4 day weekend, haven't been home since a weekend trip in April,
and wouldn't be able to go home over Christmas. Hrm… Well, I'd have
24ish hours in the car to study… and if I can buy my birthday present
early** I can use it to listen to lectures while driving, adding in
extra review… But we certainly hadn't budgeted for a trip home, and
hotels at home are EXPENSIVE if we want to stay somewhere you don't
have to worry about catching something from the sheets… Enter Mikey,
best friend from highschool and his awesome wife Jan, who out of the
blue offered for us to stay with them and their daughters at their new
house. A trip home, no hotel costs, fabulous downtime with Mikey,
Jan, ,L and M (as opposed to normal quick trips home where we don't
have time to visit with friends) and I was sold. As expected, it was
mostly a mad rush, but we had a great time and are very glad we went.
I even took part of a morning and got one of the three papers half
written at Mike's table. Mean Brian wouldn't let me go to Costco for
the chocolate run until I had. Grr. Not that it surprises me, but
Brian was astounded Mike's daughter L remembered Brian from the last
time we saw them. At Disneyworld two years ago when she was 3. It's
amazing watching them grow up. We were supposed to meet up with them
at WDW again this year, but then had to change the dates of the trip
so we missed them, and we were not happy about that aspect! When I'm
not posting by email, I have photos of all the neices and nephews to
share since we got to see all of them. Brenden seems like he's
finally recovering more fully from his case of H1N1. Fingers crossed.

**Yes, I chose my own birthday present. And bought it, opened it and
started using it before my birthday. Live with it mom! :P We'd
bought an iPod Touch before our last trip to Disney for Brian to use
on the plane. He's so terrified of flying it's nuts, and anything
that distracts is good. But we were already having to haul my
gigantic laptop (silly Florida schools go back in August. AUGUST!)
and didn't want to carry a dvd player along as well. Yes, we could
have used the laptop, but the battery isn't *that* great, even if it
does weigh a ton. Besides, the Touch has games, movies, music,
internet (wifi) and fun! Not to mention a great app with all the
Disney restaurants with menus and meal plan options in it. But then
we started feeling guilty about the cost. And were glad we bought it
from Costco since they (as expected) released new versions the week
after we got back. We returned the original one. And I've missed it
ever since. My lectures this term are all provided online, and
conveniently come in a format designed specifically for iPods. And my
slides are all .pdf's, which can also be accessed on the touch. So I
bought myself a shiny new 8GB iPod Touch for my birthday. I used my
$20 in GC's I'd saved, and a 10% off coupon I'd earned to make it even
more reasonable. Go me! I'd have liked the larger size, but we don't
really need it. As it stands right now, I've got half my term's
lecture videos, all the slides, an 800 page textbook, far too many
games, 1 movie, and ~650 songs on it. So Brian got to listen to all
17 hours of lecture from this half term during the drive to Canada and
back. His main comment: How do I keep the alphabet soup straight? :)

--
It's kind of fun to do the impossible
- Walt Disney

Favourite Ever Lecture Quote:

"So you need a nuclear reactor, and not everyone wants to have a
nuclear reactor in their lab..."

On this Veteran's Day

Thank you, to all those who have served.
Thank you, to all those who do serve.
And to paraphrase our good friend Thorin, a marine, remember:
"Plan A is to come home safe. There is no Plan B."

By 10:30 this morning...

(And with some help from Brian) I had:
Done 5 loads of laundry
Done 2 loads of the dishwasher
Scrubbed 1 shower, 2 toilets, and 3 sinks
Vaccuumed the house
Cleared the countertops
Put away *all* the loose junk everywhere in the living spaces
Moved a bookcase upstairs to my study nook (and packed up the random
junk that had been living on it)
Prep'ed the backyard for winter (including pulling all the dead plants
for compost and moving all the pots)
Fixed the garage and gotten it back organized
... and finally went and had a shower.

The rest of the day is mine to enjoy! I forsee a visit from a good
friend, movies and stitching...

WTF??

Pardon me for a minute here while I deal with some WTF issues...

I have gout!
In my foot!
And it hurts like hell, and I'm used to living with daily pain...

WTF?

I'm in my mid-30's and eat meat ~3-4 times/week. I get enough exercise, and for the last 6 months have been consistently getting at least/if not more than my recommended water intake. I have none of the standard risks. It can't be diet induced. I do need to lose weight, but not that much, and I'm working on that one. So WTF? body? I get down to only one thing to deal with and you feel unloved, so you throw something new at me?

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that we have Brian's brother James staying with us.
Reconnecting with family is always worthwhile.

I am thankful that James was awesome and grabbed us some Timmy's from
Penn Station on his way through!

I am thankful the Dr. could fit me in to see about my foot. Verdict
is still out on cause though.

I am thankful for the warm weather that means Brian and James will be
BBQing tonight. Yumm, steak!

I am thankful for extended fall hours at the library that mean easier
access to books for me!

I am thankful that today is Make-A-Wish day at Cold Stone Creamery.
Free ice cream *AND* fundraising for Make-A-Wish, what could be
better?

I am thankful that I am swamped at work. Job security is a comforting thing!

It's kind of fun to do the impossible
- Walt Disney

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for warm fleece blankets and a purring cat as I keep my butt on the couch.

I'm thankful I still have sick days to take this year.

I'm thankful for 14 brain cell killing hours of recorded soap opera to keep by brain semi-occupied today.

I'm thankful this week's homework assignment for my course is optional.

I'm thankful that U of Fl is offering this Master's degree.

I'm thankful that we're going to be buying a chest freezer and I can plan regular meals again and won't have to stop at the grocery store 2-3 times/week.

I am thankful that there are still people in this world who take photos like this, after he comes back from the ISS. The world needs that kind of whimsy.

Disney Trip Report: Day 1

I don't promise to get all of them done, let alone done in this
detail, but here's a start!

Day 1

Woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Alarm was set for
4:15 anyways to get hubby up and moving, so I just got up and futzed
around on the computer for a while. Posted on FB that I was up,
excited and ready to go. Had a good friend who works nights respond
with a WTF? What are you up for at this time of night and why are you
so happy about it? *GRIN*

Getting to the airport was quick, easy and painless. Checkin was the
same. Had a quick laugh when I saw security unpacking the bag we'd
checked that was full of very squished pillows. I hope they had fun
stuffing them back in! We had boarding passes A60 and B1 so we
settled in for the wait, and I finally had a little breakfast there.
I was a little nervous leaving Brian behind as I boarded (I'd been
assigned the A60 pass) and hoped he'd make it okay having to talk
himself onto the plane without my "helping hand" behind his back
pushing him onwards. Got on the plane and was astounded to find the
exit row still unoccupied. SCORE! Waited through family boarding,
and then Brian came through like a champ. He was also thrilled with
the seats. We knew it was a full flight, so he opted for the middle
seat and I took the window. The flight was generically boring,
except for getting to fly alongside the tropical storm. That was neat
to look at but even as far off as we were it did cause some
turbulence. Brian looked a little green but did okay. He declared he
preferred that to flying over the hurricane last year! We landed 35
minutes early in Orlando! Off the plane and on the DME bus before we
even were supposed to land!

We'd done the online advance checkin, so once the DME bus got to the
hotel I left Brian to grab our carryon bags from the bottom of the bus
and I hotfooted it to the check-in lines. I managed to be first off
our bus into the line and was happy later when I saw the 30+ people
behind me just for online check-in by the time I was called. Our
package was ready for pickup, they'd honoured our request for a top
floor 50's room, and though there was a slight mixup over the fridge,
it was easily and quickly sorted out. Best part was our room was
already ready for us. I wouldn't have to haul the giant laptop bag to
the park and stash my laptop in a hot locker all day. Wohoo! We
found our room and wow had we lucked out. One room closer to the
front and we'd have been in the "preferred" (and thus more expensive)
rooms. Colour me happy! Ditched our stuff, applied an extra coat of
sunscreen and we were off to the Magic Kingdom!

Arrived at the gates to the Magic Kingdom at 10:45am! Plan at first
was to just hit our favourites, adjusting depending on lines. Hopped
the steam train over to Frontierland. Wait for Splash Mountain was 20
mins, so we grabbed FP's for BTMRR and headed to get wet. After
getting mildly splashed (but the wait was longer than we wanted to go
around again) we headed for PotC, over to Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip
and off on a Jungle Cruise. Our FP's were now ready, so off to BTMRR
grabbing FP's for Splash Mountain on the way. By now it was ~1pm and
we were getting hungry, and I think this was the day we tried Pecos
Bill's. I wish I'd realized when ordering that we could "make our
own" taco salads, I'd have ordered that! I had a burger which was
only so-so, Brian had the pulled pork and enjoyed it. After sitting
down to eat lunch, the early morning hit us both and we crashed. So
back to the room for us and a no guilt nap (for Brian at least) in the
AC.

We were back up and running by about 4:30 and headed back to the MK.
Used the earlier FP's for Splash Mountain to get wet then headed for
the Haunted Mansion, grabbing BTMRR FP's for later.

We were hungry for dinner, so off to Cosmic Rays for Chicken and Ribs,
our favourite meal in the MK. Discover that TTC was still down for
repairs despite being supposed to reopen today. Oh well, we've
another 10 days left! During dinner, the skies opened up and it
poured as only South Florida can. Except that unlike in past years,
it kept pouring! Did some shopping in the stores around Cosmic Rays
and rode Buzz Lightyear. My blaster was broken, but Brian's score was
respectable. After about 90 mins of pouring down rain we decided to
just head back early and call it a night. We had plenty more time to
do it all and see it all. I worked VERY hard this trip to overcome my
Type A go-go-go personality and slow down and take things as they
come. Off to the hotel by bus, during which, of course, it stopped
raining. So a quick dip in the pool (in which I actually got *cold*)
and off to bed.

Phew!

I know I chose this, and I know it's the right decision. But man doing schoolwork every evening after a full day of work is taking it out of me. Especially when combined with my attempts to be good and develop some sort of exercise routine. I'm going to try talking to my boss and see if I can change my hours slightly away from the "company norm". There are others who do so, even more extremely than I want to, so I'm hopeful. But I know there have been others in our area who have abused it in the past so it may not fly. But yesterday I got home early, spent my half hour on the treadmill and completed 2 lectures before dinner. It felt sooo good! And then there's days like today where my insomnia had acted up last night so I didn't get to sleep until 4am. So I was late into work, late home from work, and here it is 8:15 and I've only just finished dinner. (Yummy, yummy dinner that Brian BBQ'd again...) And dessert is chocolate ice cream and homemade chocolate chip cookies* once I've written the first page of this week's homework assignment... And ONLY once that first page is written. Then it's another 50ish pages of reading and off to bed.

*Yes, I'm still on a diet, yes I'm losing weight/inches, yes this is not the best choice. But it'll be a small quantity of ice cream, 2 small cookies (I made them deliberately so) and is coming out of my "bonus" points for the week. I've (almost) earned it!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that I'm well employed and was able to take a great
vacation this year.

I'm thankful my husband enjoys Walt Disney World as much as I do.

I'm thankful my cat still loves me dearly and wants snuggles.

I'm thankful for more fresh tomatoes from my garden.

I'm thankful Brian is getting a promotion at work.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

I'm going the fundraising walk again this year and would love if anyone out there could support me. It's an important cause that everyone has been touched by.

The American Cancer Society:

Shared via AddThis

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that in 38 hours, my vacation starts, baring any delays
from possible hurricane Danny. Or, look at it another way, noon
tomorrow vacation starts!

I am thankful that my not-quite boss is very understanding when other
sections of the company screw up my timing/sample planning.

I am VERY thankful the safety committee meeting for this afternoon is
cancelled. I might finish everything up before I go away!

I am thankful that Percy is still being a complete snugglebug. It's
different behaviour for him, which concerns me a little bit, but I'll
take the snuggles for now.

I'm thankful for Michelle who is willing to stop by while we're away
and spoil Percy rotten. We may get told to just leave again by him
when we get home...

I'm thankful for cooler weather that means we've been able to sit at
home in the evenings the last two nights with all the windows open
enjoying the breezes.

I'm absurdly thankful for the great writing in Leverage that has Brian
and I having to pause it so we can finish laughing before continuing.
Deep laughs like that do wonders for a person.

It's Official!

I'm a student again. I'm registered (phew!) for my class that starts Monday morning, and I've paid my tuition (whimper!). I'm excited about it but a little nervous about finding the time to balance everything without short changing Brian.

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for the opportunity to learn new techniques at work, even
when it means 13 hour days now and then.

I'm thankful that the registrar at U of Fl is being very helpful with
all the problems occurring with my attempts to register for my course
this fall. You know, the one that starts Monday...

I'm thankful that Percy still wants loads of snuggles. Until Brian
gets home, of course! :)

I'm thankful Brian doesn't start at 5:30am every day.

I'm thankful for the yummy cherry tomatoes from the garden.

I'm very thankful that the *cough actual, not at top of blog*
countdown to Disneyworld is in single digits!