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!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for a job that I love, even if it does sometimes require
12 hour days.

I'm thankful for my husband, who is willing to spoil me rotten after a
rough day.

I'm thankful that the heat has broken so we can make yummy, yummy spice cake.

I'm thankful for the purring cat that's demanding my attention.

I'm thankful my vacation starts in 2 more weeks.

Traffic!

Last night on the way home there was a rather large accident on one of
the main roads (Rt. 25 for locals) involving downed wires. Brian and
I encountered it shortly after it had occurred. All we could see was
about a dozen emergency vehicles spread over about a half mile of
road. While crawling through an improvised local laneway detour I
heard what is possibly the scariest traffic report I've ever heard,
even after living in NJ/NY for almost 10 years. The radio traffic
reports were advising people to turn around, go back to Rt 347 and
take it south to Portion Rd to go around.

For those local to me, you'll understand the full horror of this. For
those of you not on Long Island, think of the worst, most congested
road in your area and make it twice as bad. Then double that. If you
take 347 during regular rush hours (3:30pm-7pm), expect a travel speed
of roughly 6 miles/hour. On a normal night… For those of you in NJ,
it's worse than Route 1. By a fair margin. And they were advising
people who have finally, blissfully gotten off Rt 347 to get right
back on and go back ~ 3 miles. I think if I'd been crawling on 347
and heard that I'd have just pulled in some place and gone for dinner.
Though as it turns out, that wouldn't have helped much. The accident
and repairs were serious enough that they still hadn't reopened Rt. 25
this morning when I left for work.

On the flip side of that, however, was my drive into work today. I've
started getting up really early so I can miss most of the traffic.
Given that Rt. 25 was still closed this morning, I expected my normal
route to have more traffic than normal. So I left ~15 minutes early.
Apparently, no-one else had that idea. I'm bombing down the leftmost
lane on the Long Island Expressway (another road deservedly notorious
for its traffic nightmares) in fairly light traffic and realize that
I'm just not keeping up with the cars in my lane. And I *think* I'm
going fast enough that I shouldn't be acting like a cork in the left
lane. (Cork, as in bottleneck, as in everyone is pulling into the
middle lane to blow past me…) I look down at my speedometer to double
check and discover that I'm doing 80mph. And being left behind like
I'm standing still. On the LIE. Which is a 55mph highway…

August Update (almost on the 1st!)

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
Fall of Atlantis (three books in one combined volume)
2 more "Bones" mysteries

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?
Royal Pains (cute but forgettable)
Warehouse 13 (see above…)
Zombie Strippers (you don't want to know)

What special days did I celebrate and how?
None particularly, but our anniversary is coming up this week.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?
Lots more birthday cards/calls.
Baby card for Ciara.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
Same lingering sinus infection from last update.  I'm going back to
the Dr. on the 5th again about it.  I do not want to still have it
when we head to Disney.  Ruptured eardrums are no fun.
Brian got his custom orthotics from the podiatrist, so he's getting
adjusted to them.

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
Loads of card/games with the Henagans.
Made reverse/resist dyed shirts for Disney.
Finished Fantasy Triptych!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?
New citrus marinade for chicken on the bbq.  Yum.
Grilled Mahi-Mahi in my ongoing attempt to work more seafood into our
diet.  Not so yum…

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
See next question down…

What were this month's disappointments?
Brian's DM being a complete jerk about vacation time.  He's had the
same week booked off for Disney since April 1st.  We leave Sept. 19th.
The new restaurant is now scheduled to open Sept. 15th.  Guess who
just had his vacation time effectively cancelled?  So we've had to
rebook the trip and are now going earlier.  But we had less than 3
days to replan everything or be charged change fees.  Thankfully, we
pressed DM for an answer so we could avoid them.  Once I actually
remember to do so from home (no access from work) I'll update the
ticker above to show the correct date.

What were my accomplishments this month?
Rebooking our entire Disney trip on no notice and managing to even get
most of our dining reservations that we'd had with the original trip.
Having FANTASTIC Disney customer service even allow us to keep the
free dining on the trip even though that promotion is now over.  That
phone call deserves it's own blog post!  And, because of the change in
airfare over the long weekend, it was actually cheaper to stay two
more nights than to come back after 9 days like originally planned.
And since it incorporates the long weekend, I *just* have enough days
off to do it.  I'd been saving one in reserve for unplanned
emergencies.

Anything else noteworthy to record?
Not that comes to mind immediately…

What made me smile this month?
Fresh peas from the garden.
Realizing that because of the rebooking, I'd be at my Happiest Place
on Earth in exactly a month.  (Can you tell I've been living for this
vacation?)
Surpassing the 10 pound mark on my weight loss goals.
Holding Ciara and managing both to get her to burp (twice!) and have
her fall asleep in my arms.

He he he

I just made a Disney reservation specialist think I was completely insane. COMPLETELY. The hardest dining reservation to get at any time of year, let alone during Free Dining is Le Cellier. And I just called to cancel not one, but two Le Cellier reservations. TWO! She made me confirm repeatedly that yes, this was what I wanted to do. Yes, I knew how hard they were to get. Yes, I wanted to cancel them. And yes, I was me. (But in my defense, the reason I was calling to cancel them was because I'd finally gotten a dinner reservation for one of the days I actually wanted, so it's not like we won't be eating there at all.)

The bounty of my BBQ floweth over

Tonight I called Brian as I was ready to leave work to request he BBQ something for dinner. I wasn't feeling picky, so long as there was a source of protein, I'd be happy. This is the fabulous dinner he BBQ'd for me. :) Yum!




Steak, shrimp, corn on the cob and mushrooms. Dessert (?) was a full bowl of sugar snap peas from my garden.

Wahoooooo!

First up: "The Aftermath"











And now: "The Payoff"




Teresa Wentzler's Fantasy Triptych
Completed July 19, 2009

How to completely make a bad weekend better!

We were supposed to be going up to NH to stay with friends for the weekend. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty sick, and Brian got sick yesterday. So we've had to cancel. While a quiet weekend at home is what we need, it's not what we'd looked forward to for weeks. I wasn't exactly happy about giving it up. But it needed to be done. And then, this afternoon, I get this from my friend Helen. Suddenly a $19 train fare into the city doesn't sound too bad... (Oh, and we had already planned our Timmy stops in CT on the way to NH.)

Not-So Monthly Update

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

 

Many, I've actually been on a reading binge lately.  I went back through some old favourites and have started getting into some of the "Bones" mystery novels.  It's been ages since I've done a real mystery run so it seems to be time again.  Nothing fabulous enough to recommend, but nothing horrid.

 

 

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

Loads of catch-up stuff.  Our DVR actually showed as only having two things left on it as of Monday night.  (And those two are old F1 races I won't delete as they relax me and help me sleep when the insomnia is getting really bad.  Something soothing in the sound of those engines!)  We haven't watched any "recent" movies in a while.  A few are coming out that I'd like to see, but nothing I'm dying to.

 

 

What special days did I celebrate and how?

Vin's birthday BBQ was a blast.  We've missed the last two years for one reason and another so it was really nice to get to go this year.

Ciara Mary Rose was born on June 30^th, happy, healthy and loved.

Canada Day and July 4^th!  (I love getting to celebrate both and so close together.)  Fairly typical stuff was planned, but most didn't happen*.  Had a blast at the Toronto/Yankee game on July 3^rd though.

 

 

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

I haven't given it yet, but I have a special card for CMR.  I also made a card and castle cake for Vin's birthday BBQ.  Several other birthday cards, though not nearly all.  Do you know I have 28 friend and family birthdays between June 6^th and July 15^th?

 

 

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

*I got sick on July 2^nd with a severe (of course!) ear infection which progressed to throat, sinuses and lungs.  I'm still not well, but am back at work.  Yick!  I'll survive, but I'm just praying that I don't rupture the eardrum again.  Once/year is plenty, thanks.

 

 

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Vin's birthday BBQ, several evenings of good food and cards/games/wii with the Henagans and the Toronto/Yankee game with Brian.  (Wow, this sounds repetitive!)  We also finally managed to co-ordinate schedules to meet up with Jess and Jay to congratulate them on getting engaged.

 

 

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Ummm… none?  I'm pretty boring actually.  And I'm skipping a new restaurant today with work due to my food allergies.  I'm okay with it though, it's just my life as normal. :)  I did venture outside my comfort zone though for Brian's request to try new places at Disney this year.  I got almost all the reservations I wanted, and only one of them is a repeat from prior trips!  On top of the Food and Wine Festival, we're going to be "eating our way around the world" restaurants at Epcot.  We've reservations for 4 of them!

 

 

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

A new laptop!  I'm going back to school and needed something newer than my 5.5 year old mac laptop to handle all the streaming video etc.  Poor thing has had (and will continue to have) a great life, but it just can't handle the video stuff anymore.  And since the course is delivered online…

 

 

What were this month's disappointments?

Being sick when we had a big weekend planned!  Why is it that whenever I get time off work I get sick?  My strawberry crop has been ruined by the weather.  I *may* get two strawberries out of the whole patch.  OTOH, at least I'm not a commercial strawberry farmer.  Official numbers for the region are in, and they lost over 70% of the crop this year.

Not getting to go see CMR when she was born because of being sick.

 

 

What were my accomplishments this month?

Finalized plans to go back to school and figured out how we're going to pay for it all.  Not easy, but I've got it figured out for the next year of classes at least.

Getting the garage cleaned out to the point where we could park a car in it.  And realizing that it's really not worth the trade off.  And putting a bunch of stuff back into the garage again… :)

 

 

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Brian now has two restaurants trying to steal him away from his current one.  The one closer to home may actually manage to, we'll see.  I think he should, he's just not sure. 

 

 

What made me smile this month?

Seeing my peas finally bloom.  On July 3^rd!  I'm just hoping we get to actually eat them this year…

Hearing Ciara was born healthy and happy.

Getting time to stitch and read.

 

A Sad Day for me...

I'm going back to school this fall (no, that's not the sad part).  I need a new laptop to be able to handle everything I'll need to do while we're traveling, which we'll be doing several times during my course.  I *love* my macs.  We've been a mac only household for several years now.  But I just can't justify the cost for a new mac laptop over a PC.  Money is tight to be able to go back to school and keep our vacation plans.  And I am NOT giving up Disney if there's any way to save it.  So the sad day has come, and I've just bought a new PC laptop. :(  And between holiday weekend sales and corporate discount through work, I'm getting a steal on the system.  As in a $1200 laptop for $600... So I'll get to deal with the joy that is Vista sometime later this month for the first time.  I would like to have held out until Windows 7 comes out in October, but Disney is in September.  Though at least I did get a free upgrade to Windows 7 once it comes out.  Wish us luck!

Reason # 52234 why my new dentist is awesome

Brian had dental surgery this morning.  And the dentist himself just called us, at home, at 9:15pm to see how Brian was doing.  Checked on his pain level to see if he needed to have a prescription called in.  Make sure the bleeding had (finally!) stopped.  How awesome is that?

Happy Canada Day!

Wow, is that what I think it is?

Yup!  3/4 inch hail bouncing off everything in sight. 

I really do love thunderstorms, but I'm less thrilled with ones that risk property damage...  Then again, with the storms this morning, we had 3 power outages at work before I finished my half day!  And the afternoon was gloriously sunny, and for the first time in the month of June, we broke 80F/27C. 

Of course, today was also the day I was baking for the fundraiser we are helping out with on Sunday.  6 dozen cookies baked and the central air gets my seal of approval. 

Who says inanimate objects don't have a sense of humour?

Today at work was rough.  Extra rough.  I've just gotten in the door after a 13+ hr day, and my samples still aren't running.  I'm learning a new instrument technique at work.  It's not working.  And the person with 10+ years experience with it can't figure out why either.  No idea.  We've just spent quite a lot of time trying... So you get the idea.  The sort of day you just want to forget.

Anywho, I get on the highway and have my iPod on random shuffle.  I was skipping a fair number of songs 'cause I was looking for something with a nice beat to sing along with.  Last three songs before I turn into my driveway?

She works hard for the money
Under pressure
9 to 5

Who says inanimate objects have no sense of humour?

My smile for today

While on hold trying to change some of my dining plans for Walt Disney World in September, I was treated to the full soundtrack for Splash Mountain.  It just kept making me grin!

 

(And who says technology is the best?  The online reservation system was down, which is why I ended up calling them, and got the unexpected surprise!)

Happy Father's Day!

To all the dads out there, I hope you have a great day!

Checking in

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the planet.  We're still alive and kicking.  Our health is overall good, and we're both still employed.

 

I've just not particularly been in the blogging mood, and I need to get back to it.

We've been up to loads, and I keep thinking I need to post about X,Y,Z and all the other things, but then I feel guilty for not posting about A,B and C.  So I'm just going to give up and start from here...

 

Weight loss is going well, I'm down 8 lbs.

 

Summer isn't really summer yet.  We've not broken 80F/26C yet this month.  And it's rained every day but one.*  So much for global warming! :)  They've also changed how our summer hours work at work, and they're not nearly as useful/worthwhile to me any more.  I now work an extra hour Mon-Thurs and only work a half day Friday.  By the time I'm done running errands on the way home, I'm still stuck in Friday afternoon traffic!  (*For reference, by mid June in an average year we'd have had 4 days with temps above 95F/35C, and we've already received double the monthly average rainfall.)

 

I'm going back to school this fall.  I'm excited but a bit scared.  And man is it expensive here in the US.  I'm going to end up paying more for one course for one semester than I did for my first full year of tuition in Canada.  OUCH!  And because of that, we're not doing anything splurgy that wasn't already booked and paid for before this opportunity came about. 

 

Disney in September is still absolutely a go though!  It has been fully paid off for months, and all we'll need $$ wise is just pocket money.  All our travel/lodgings/food is already paid for!  I think excitement about this trip is all that keeps me at work some days.

 

We prevailed with the IRS.  Stupid #@$#%$# Scottrade had reported stuff wrongly for our 2007 taxes.  And apparently we were far from the only ones.  One big relief having that done.  We still haven't settled with the ex-landlords.  And at this point, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it.  If I pursue it much further, they could come after us for the full amount of rent for the rest of the lease we cancelled.  And frankly, we don't have anything close to that amount of $$ available in the 1:1million chance they win.  But those who know me, know how well I do when there are strange odds about...  I also won with my employer on the contract issue.  Not sure I posted anything about that (and blogging about work is banned anyways), but they were trying to modify terms of something that had been in place since I joined the company.  Retroactively.  I don't think so...

 

So what's up with everyone else out there?

(Presuming anyone still reads this thing that is...)

 

Weightloss update: 4/15/09

Food: horrible. I was going high on points before getting home, starving while sitting in traffic, so I snacked from the emergency supplies and then we ended up going out to dinner with Dina. (Which was awesome and so worth it!)

Exercise: good, 20 minutes moderate!