Day to Day

– I need to figure out how to blog via email, to this blog. I’m pretty sure I set it up so that I could do it, but I don’t have the email addy handy to actually do it. (This is why it was so much easier to have posterous around, sigh.)

– The internet always goes out when you can least handle it going out.

– I’m not very good at writing blog posts when I’m “offline”. This makes no sense but there you have it. I can’t write when I’m flying. I can’t write when the internet is down. I’m too distracted by the lack of connectivity to string any words together.

– AT&T’s service is a zillion times better than any other internet/cable provider I’ve used (Everything from Charter to Comcast to Cox to I don’t even know what else.)

– White noise machines are weird. Do they work better than the white noise app on your iPhone/iPad?

– People really like to talk about their dogs.

– Gel pens make me happy.

– I need to clean out my desk top thingy so I have more photos of JMP and fewer stray pieces of paper tucked under the glass.

– There are too many interesting books to read and not enough time to read them.

– There are an awful lot of movies I wanted to see but never got around to seeing.

– Prairie Dogs don’t get less messy as they get older.

– When you work 10 hour days instead of 12-14-16 hour days, you get more done. And maybe have more fun getting things done.

I’ve always wanted to go to Menards (and The Crafty Beaver, but that’s another post entirely), even before I started couponing seriously and learned about the couponing opportunities, but have never managed to go. It’s so big and not as close as Lowe’s and Home Depot, so I always put it off. Until today.

I took an early morning work break and we headed to CVS for TW’s meds and some peeps, stopped by Starbucks to get our morning coffee (where a nice barista informed me that Menards is JUST LIKE HOME DEPOT OR LOWE’s) — he’s full of shit.

Yea, it’s a home improvement store similar to Lowe’s and Home Depot but it’s not the same at all. They sell food at Menards. And books, (novels and kids books and stuff), and greeting cards. They sell health & beauty items like toothpaste and deodorant, for goodness sakes.

They also have a whole lot of cool stuff — like this recycled tin flamingo and this recycled tin taxi. I want them both! (I actually want pretty much all of their recycled tin yard art, sigh.)

I even liked these little frogs and turtles. How cute, right?

Instead, we went home with the peat moss, mulch and gravel on our list (as well as a toilet flusher thingy, a bag of hot dog flavored potato chips for Elly and a big of cinnamon jelly hearts for me.)

We might have to go back for a backyard fence for Skeeter andthat flamingo might jump into my cart on our next trip… maybe.

No flowers blooming.

Snow and ice still lurking on the ground and occasionally in the sky.

More overcast than sunny.

No robins or hummingbirds.

Yet…

Skeeter found a stick in the backyard today and found it more satisfying to chew on than an icicle.

Skeeter dug a hole in the dirt and not in the snow and she loved it.

Maybe spring really is coming?

Maybe?

I knew it was going to be a suck ass kind of day but I underestimated the ass suckedness of it. For some reason I forgot that a shit day is made worse if you’ve had no sleep the night before.

I keep saying “Why in the hell am I so exhausted?”

TW kept looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

Oh yea. I didn’t sleep last night.

Shit.

At least I made progress in Candy Crush Saga.

Damn, Mrs Lincoln’s Dressmaker — it’s a little too slow and I’m having trouble finishing.

Damn, Words With Friends — my letters are really sucking.

Damn, Candy Crush Saga — it’s sucking my soul.

Damn, Damn, Damn.

On Sunday, I finally sat down and created an instagram photo album of photos from 2012 and it was a pain but the book arrived and it makes me happy. It makes RJ happy, too. I don’t know about anyone else but who cares about anyone else, right?

I also ordered some stickers from Prinstagram and those are fabulous, too. I can’t wait to use them in my JMP tag book and who knows where else.

While I was wandering around, I decided to order some magnets from Stickygram. Those arrived today and I love, love, love them. I’m a bit of a magnet-aholic and I couldn’t help myself, I had to order.

I love instagram not just because it’s fun to take photos and share them with my social media streams but also because I can use my instagram shots so easily in other places.

My favorites are:

– Postagram
– Printstagram
– Shutterfly
– Stickygram

Are there others I should try?

Joy gave me this little calendar thing and it’s never set at the right date, unless a child has recently come along and fixed it (which is rare) but I love it anyway — it makes me smile because it makes me think of Joy. It also causes me to stop and take a minute to figure out what day it really is, which can be very useful at times.

It’s been a rough month. Hell, it’s been a rough year. And I have a cold (obviously). Rather than be all down in the dumps about everything, I decided to do something to cheer myself up.

I changed the calendar to March 23, the day TW and I head off on our mini vacation. Now, every time I look at my little block calendar, I’ll smile even more.

My feet are freezing. My slippers and my socks got wet which caused the extra freeziness of my feet.

God Damn Snow.

It’s still snowing. It’s been snowing steadily since before Noon. It looks like it’s going to keep snowing pretty steadily for quite some time. Maybe for days. I hope not for weeks. Unless it gets it all out of its system before TW’s mom heads to Denver.

I’m looking forward to that.

I’m looking forward to our mini vacation to Door County, too. I don’t care if there’s not a damn thing to do except drink coffee in a little coffee shop and wander around a strange small town library and trudge through snow along the shore of the bay or the lake.

I don’t care. I just need a damn vacation.

If I was brave, I’d leave my computer at home. But I’m not brave at all, so I’m going to take it. Which isn’t so much brave as it is smart, since TW will have to work while we’re on vacation. Damn contractor jobs. Damn tax payments and hospital bills. Damn the expenses we’re going to face over the next three years.

Because yea, I’ve really started to think about what happens 3 years and a few months from now. Where are we going to move? I’m totally looking forward to the leaving part but the figuring out what comes next and where — and how the hell much is that going to cost, recognizing just how much it cost to get us here and get TW’s mom here and TW’s sister here and then to do it all again in the other direction.

Holy hell.

My feet are freezing, I need to go dig around for a few pairs of socks.

For many years, I looked forward to Fridays and not just because Friday meant weekend and less work and fun. But because my Fridays were light workdays. Not a lot of meetings. Not a lot of reports, or the reports that were due were easy ones. Fridays were the days when I could catch up on the things that slipped through the cracks earlier in the week. Fridays were the days when I might actually be able to write something. Or catch up on reading blogs that I was only able to skim earlier in the week. Fridays were the days that I could hang out in Chatter. Leave some comments on blogs that I normally don’t have time to comment on.

I miss those Fridays.

Suddenly my Fridays are full of things that aren’t supposed to be there. Mayhem and chaos. Nothing goes according to schedule. My best intentions are gone by 9am and I’m flying by the seat of my sweatpants, again.

Oh well, at least Saturdays and Sundays are slow, right?