Birthday Report

For my birthday this year we had long planned to take the day off work and go into the city to see the King Tut exhibit. The delivery for the new bed (go Black Friday specials, wohoo!) was scheduled for the next day, however, and I couldn't really justify two days off that week since we were pretty busy. But the next weekend, we took the Sunday and went in. Our friend Randi came and joined us, and we had a really nice day.


There were no cameras allowed in the exhibit itself, unsurprisingly. This is the big mural out front.



Afterwards we went to linner/lupper at Bubba Gump's, one of our favourite restaurants. We hit the absolute sweet spot between lunch and dinner crowds. It was quiet, calm, and the service was excellent as usual.



Given all the walking, Brian was in a fair bit of pain by then. So Randi got treated to her own personal Adventures of Vicoden Man! :P



The next two photos are of each end of Times' Square. I'm sorry Bonnie, no matter how much you'd like to live vicariously through me, I WILL NOT go there for New Years. Nope, nut-uh, not happening. These are the closest you can get! :) Sometimes I still have to pinch myself and remember how amazing our life is when we can just "pop in to" places like this for an afternoon.







And a final reminder of why Becky is my best friend...



Okay, so I'll admit it, I'm cheating. I wrote all three of these on Boxing Day and just set them to post in sequence. :) I had the time while Brian was watching Jonas Hex, which I had seen earlier in the day.

Trip Home

Since I had the card reader out, I figured I should grab some other photos to post. These are from our trip home in October. They're just of my family, I had a fresh card in the camera from David and Brenda's wedding. And it ATE the photos. That'll teach me to try to be good and make sure I had lots of space. I was SOOOOOO mad. But Brian's mom sent us one of the ones of the full family (including us) with our Christmas present and it turned out wonderfully. I'll have to scan it at some point and post it.

Le Chateau Des Eberhardt est pret pour les reservations!

I finally have the downstairs bedroom set up as a guest room. I love the concept of having my own craft room/library, but the truth is, I rarely used it as such. I'd grab what supplies I need and bring them out to the living room to actually *do* whatever craft I was feeling like. And given the "delightfulness" of my crappy sleep habits, we were strongly considering putting a bed downstairs for me.

But book early, we're already filling up. No, seriously, April is already completely booked up for us!










And what's with all the bright white out that window you may be asking yourself? It's slightly late, but I'm getting a white Christmas after all. Better late than never! They're currently forecasting 15-20 inches (38-50cm) of snow by the time it ends tomorrow! Good thing I got myself that present two posts down, isn't it? And I liked mom's comment about it being a necessity and made Brian buy me another Christmas gift. Good thinking mom! Below are the photos from the snow in the last post, and I'll post photos of this snow from tomorrow. Ish.

Real Snow!!

We had a bunch of flakes last night while I was running errands after
physiotherapy, and that's all that was forecast, but hey, it was snow,
and I was happy. Hell, it was 55F/13C on Sunday, so at least it was
starting to feel like December with the flakes. So imagine my thrill
when I got up this morning and discovered about half an inch of the
fabulous white stuff. Photos will come once I get home tonight and
can download them.

What? Yes, I took photos, so Pssssbt!

I'm a very naughty girl

I just bought my own Christmas present, AGAIN. Brian's going to be mad at me for it because I have a bad habit of doing that. And in this case, I don't really care, because it's as much for me as it is for him! Click the title if you want to know what I got!

It's official

We had snow today! Just a slight flurry, not even a bare dusting, but
it counts. I saw snow!

Never mind the fact that it still caused multiple car accidents on
this morning's commute.
Really folks? It's not like we never get snow here. You shouldn't be
losing it over that.

Discussions with Vicoden Man

So Brian was given Vicoden for his hand. And he can only take it while home and not going to drive. It usually makes him pretty sleepy*, but also leads some interesting conversations. *After taking this mornings at about 5:30am when I got up for work, he proceeded to continue to sleep until after noon.

I think all who know him will agree he's had many odd conversations all on his own, drug free. This one was priceless:

Brian goes upstairs to work on laundry, and about 10 minutes later I realize I haven't heard anything...

H: "Brian, whatcha doing?"
B: "The bed got me"

All normal so far, that's a phrase we use to say we're just flaking out upstairs in the quiet for a little while.

10 more minutes pass and I go upstairs to see what he wants to do for dinner.
He has gotten undressed and fully tucked himself into bed.
Teddy bear and all.

H: "Really, the *bed* got *you*? It doesn't look that way to me..."
B: "My clothes conspired with the bed"

Brian's Newest Fashion Accessory

Is it wrong of me to laugh at him as he tries to tie his shoes? It was sporkworthy stupidity that caused it. And who knew? Brian-the-lefty apparently punches with his right.

My most adorable hour spend hand sewing EVER.

So, this happened, then that did, then the world turned upside down...

Or "Why I won't write any more final exams."

This latest course finishes the certificate, and I am REALLY wondering if the universe is threatening Brian to get me to just stop there and not get the full Master's. I don't know if I dare take any more, the next one might kill him.

First Final Exam: (December) Brian gets Bronchitis that week. Acts like a typical man. Doesn't take enough care of himself or time off work. Spends New Year's Eve coughing so hard he tore the cartilage in his lungs. Spending New Year's Day waiting to been seen by the doctor (who is wonderful, and was actually open!!!) followed by waiting for x-rays was not how I planned to start 2010.

Second Final Exam: (May) The day of my final, Brian has training at work. Calls me mid-afternoon, sounding odd. I finally get him to tell me what's going on. He got fired. From the job he loves, caring for people in group homes. Because he varyingly (depending on who was telling him what he'd done wrong and why he was being fired) both doesn't follow the rules enough, and is inflexible when dealing with the rules. He reports and documents found meds as per the rules. WRONG! He switches up breakfasts during the same week at the request of a client. WRONG!

Third Final Exam: (August) I had my final on Monday morning last week, and Brian knew it had to be turned in by noon. Which is why he waited until noon to call and tell me he'd been in a car accident at 5am on his way into work, and was in the ER. And he refused to tell the hospital my number so they could call me. I truly love that man, but sometimes I want to smack him upside the head. Just not right now. It's too tender.

Long story short (like I'm capable of that, ha!) he'll be okay in the long term. He was rear-ended when he was already stopped. The other driver got out, and asked if Brian was okay. When Brian said no, and he thought he should call for an ambulance, the driver who hit him said "Oh shit!" and booked it out of there. Brian didn't get the plates. The police were called (thankfully there was a witness) and reports taken, but we don't have much hope they'll actually catch the guy. Brian spent two very scary days in hospital, but is home and resting more or less comfortably. We've a lot of follow-up doctor visits to come, some PT, and it'll be a while before he's back at work again. But he will be fine in the medium-long term, and that's what matters most!

Just how good at customer service is my husband?

He had a regular customer come into the restaurant today who is so unimpressed they haven't promoted him* that she gave him her business card and told him to get her a resume...

:) :) :)

I've always said he loves helping people no matter what he's doing!

(*Their name badges have their titles on them, not that he was bitching to a customer about it. Though I've had a few private bitches to myself about it...)

This is why I now get up at 5:30am...

For all I am *so* not a morning person, I set a new best time into
work this morning. 25 minutes door to door. If I left at 8am, it
would take over an hour. I may hate the early mornings, and loathe
going to bed so early, but I'll take it to reclaim over an hour from
every day.

So it's been a while...

School ate my life, and I haven't really been doing much worth writing about. I have, however, been taking photos, and to that end, I've finally gotten around to starting to setup photo galleries. If you're interested, they can be found here, or by clicking on the title of this post. I hope eventually to get them captioned as needed, at the very least, but figure something is better than nothing!

Thankful Thursday (on Friday!)

First off, I'm thankful that my new boss is awesome. I'm getting
sick, and felt worse than death warmed over yesterday afternoon. So
he sent me home early and I crawled directly into bed once I got
there! As soon as I shut my eyes, I could see the auras starting for
a migrane, but I was thankfully already home and in bed in the dark.
Brian woke me up about 6:30 so I could eat some dinner, and the sleep
and darkness averted the migrane. I'm still sick as a dog, but it
could have been a whole lot worse.

I'm thankful I don't get migranes like my mom and Marie do. I
generally (last year excepted) get them very rarely, and if I catch
the auras starting up and can get somewhere pitch black quickly
enough, I can usually head them off. I'm very lucky that I'm not
exceedingly sensitive to noise with one, but I am *INCREDIBLY*
sensitive to light/motion when I have one. Unfortunately now that
we're no longer 10 mins from work, it's a little harder to duck home
and get rid of one. And they're becoming a LOT more frequent. I wish
I could figure out what's triggering them. I'm 99% sure it's not food
caused the last two times. I do know sharp cheese is a trigger for me
(Booo! I *love* sharp cheddar!) but I've been very carefully steering
clear of it for a while. And yesterday I had none at all, nor was
anything else I ate either a)unusual, or b)a common trigger.

I'm thankful that Costco has their fabulous bulbs again this spring.
18 day lilies for $13? Yes please! And at that price I can pick up
some for to make a friend's day who needed it.

I'm thankful that Brian has yet another job interview, again in his
old field, and that this one is closer to home. He's liking the new
job, but the 30+ mile commute on Long Island sucks. Hard.

I'm very, very thankful that Pat could come pick up Laura and I last
Saturday night. We had quite an adventure, and I've a post brewing on
that (it's ~80% typed). For now the summary is LIRR and NJTransit
FAIL!

I'm thankful that Tom thought of me when he had some YA books returned
to him from his neice. I'm thoroughly enjoying them, and loving the
"brainfluff" aspects of reading YA stuff at bedtime. It helps slow
down my ever spinning brain so sometimes it'll let me sleep!

Stitching Update

Courtesy of writing my exam this morning, I earned some stitching time tonight. This is Jen and Joe's Te Amo after another 5 hours work. I love how quickly this is stitching up!

Thankful Thursday

I want to start this feature up once again. I often think we're so
rushed we don't take time to enjoy what we do have. So I'm going to
try, but not try to make myself come up with 7 things every Thursday.

I'm thanful for Spring Break. Not because I get one, Hah! But because
it means I get an extra week to study/prepare for my midterm exam.
And before the take home midterm is due. Yes, that's right, both a
take home and a regular written exam in one course. Oh fun!

I'm thankful for executive travel. Apparently that's how we got the
snow day last week... The normal exec's who *don't* call them were
away.

I'm thankful that both of my icky-nasty-scary medical tests are done,
and that the results are negative for the worst one. (Still have to
wait a week for the other...)

WOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

For obvious reasons I can't identify which, but we've apparently sold
the product that has my most hated, abhored and despised test method.
I shall never have to do ******* again! Wohooooooooo!

Just for mom!

I'm taking some time out from studying this afternoon to watch the CAN-US hockey final, and wanted to post to show mom what Brian's wearing in honour of it! I figure I've gotten 14 lectures summarized so far, I've earned a little stitching time!

My First American Snowman!

I took a break from studying to have a little fun on my snow day.

I am stunned...

This is the view out our back patio door. We've had more snow than I was expecting, but it's still not that much. Remember those chair tops from prior snow photos? You can pretty much still see all of the chairs themselves.
So why am I shocked?

FOREST IS CLOSED FOR THE DAY.

For the first time in company history, we get a snow day! Wohoo!!!

Now... to study...
Which seems somehow wrong for the thing I'm most looking forward to doing on my first snow day in 17ish years...

Stitching Update

So, last weekend, for the first time all term, I got totally caught up on my course for school. The university had some "technical difficulties" which meant those of us taking it on line had to wait a week before our first lectures were posted. And there's homework due 3x/week for this course, so I've been playing catch up for weeks. But... since I did get totally caught up by Sunday, Monday was stitching time!
I can't show one of the things I finished for a couple of weeks yet until I know it's been received and opened, but I can show you what I got done on my project for me: Teresa Wentzler's The Unicorn:



That's after 10 hours of stitching time, and it still doesn't look like much, but this is what it should look like when it's done! (With the usual provisos that the photos on the website never look close to as good as they do in person, of course!) I've seen it done, once, and it was just as stunning as I'd always imagined.

OMG, it's Snowmageddon!

They're forecasting anywhere from 4-18 inches of snow and you'd think
the world was ending. It's hilarious. I'll freely admit that
tomorrow's forecast sounds nasty. Full on blizzard even. Maybe.
They also forecast over a foot of snow for us last Saturday. We got
nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. So I'm betting I'll be going to work
tomorrow, whether I want to or not.

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! :)