I finally (finally!) updated my links (aka blogroll) on this site! It was woefully out of date, and I had to add about a bajillion new blogs to the list. But, if you’re looking for something new to read, I highly recommend checking out some of the ones I’ve listed. And yes, I actually do visit most of those sites (70-80%) daily, and the rest weekly (or as often as they update). There’s probably 10% that I rarely visit, and a few that haven’t updated in months, and I should probably remove those, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Do you know what the problem with staying hydrated is (aka drinking a lot of water)? You have to go to the bathroom a lot. It’s kind of annoying.

And for a work update, has finally drawn up a schedule for answering the phones and circulated it to my co-workers, so the three of us equally share phone duty each week. Yay! So now I have the responsibility Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and afternoons on the second Friday of the month. (It’s complicated, and there’s a schedule, and I’ve printed it out and posted it in my cube so I don’t forget.) I found it amusing that after the email was sent out, one co-worker immediately emailed back, “sounds great!” and then about half an hour later went in to tell that she could answer phones every afternoon if that would help. Do you think she knows she’s been a slacker, and is trying to cover her butt? Methinks so. However, this newly found interest in answering the phones does not apply to today. The schedule starts Monday, and my co-workers have decided to not start until then. Boo on that.

Lunch today is an apple with Nutella, followed by a decaf Chai. The work I have left for this afternoon will take probably 8 minutes, so I’m going to stretch that out as much as possible. Perhaps several bathroom breaks will help.

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Today I’m thankful for…

…water, and remembering to adequately hydrate myself (something I don’t do well).

…quiet days in the office, even if they are a bit boring.

…pants that fit much better than yesterday’s pair.

…cute (and comfortable) shoes.

…indecision about what cookies to make tonight - there are so many good cookie recipes out there!

…remembering to do all my month-end stuff ahead of schedule.

…completing yet another ornament last night, totaling 6, and making it halfway through another. Perhaps I’ll be done by Friday?

…having Christmas gifts figured out for almost everyone (just figured out, not bought).

…last night’s massage, which was a bit rough but that was probably good for my muscles.

…the new bridge they built in our town that crosses over 35E, so I don’t have to make multiple left-turns to get from the bank to the  massage place / Home Depot / Goodwill / Michaels area.

…respite from answering the phones, even if it is just that one call that just came in.

…two bags of winter clothes to sort through that we picked up from storage over the weekend.

…a husband who hasn’t yet complained about the mess I’ve made on the dining table / kitchen counter.

…a husband who is not only much better than the horrible ones I’ve seen on TV lately (last night’s Law & Order: SVU about abusive husbands), but is generally wonderful and a good companion to boot.

…hot cocoa weather.

…the chance to see ’s smiling face on Saturday (hopefully he’s smiling a bit - he’s taken up the habit of saying “no” to everything and everyone lately, in preparation for his second birthday in a few weeks).

…Monday’s anniversary, seven years since I moved to Minnesota, one of the best (though perhaps most traumatic) decisions I’ve ever made.

…Flickr. It’s great entertainment, and a good way to meet new people too (who needs Facebook or MySpace?).

…the phone call I got last night from Metro State, when my advisor realized that I’m a post-baccalaureate student and not an undergrad. Now there are some things to figure out.

…the chance to multitask some of my favorite things tonight - baking cookies, embroidery, and watching television.

…good health.

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I found this on a blog I was reading, and had to have some fun myself. Introducing my Simpson-self:

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Today I’m thankful for…

…a cold that left quickly (I’m just tired today, no sniffles or congestion!).

…getting to yell at a telemarketer last night (it was immensely satisfying, as were the two more complaints I registered with the Do Not Call Registry, making a grand total of 7 for this company).

…Hershey’s Symphony bars.

…a massage scheduled for 7:30 tonight.

…being halfway done with the Holiday Ornament Swap embroidered pieces. 5 done, 5 to go.

…getting recipes out in the mail this morning, just meeting the deadline for one swap and early for another.

…co-workers who appreciate the work I do for them.

…this coming weekend of rest and relaxation, as well as some crafting (one purse has finally died, and ’s quilt needs some serious work).

…the chance to read completely through the archives of some new blogs (completed two this week so far, and one Flickr group).

…realizing that, though my pants are quite tight today, it’s OK, because they’re 2s (it’s amazing I haven’t suffocated to death, really), and I’m currently a 6/8. That sure explains things (I thought they were 4s).

…staying caught up at work (about 95% of the time I’m caught up), still ready for the moment when the web people say “go” and finally let us get to work on our external site (and then I will be busy for 6 months straight, rewriting hundreds of pages).

…passing off yet another work task to a co-worker for that aspect of my job that I hate and no longer have to do (light at the end of the tunnel: 8 days till exit).

…a husband who gladly made dinner last night (even decided what we were eating) so that I didn’t have to think about food while (albeit mildly) ill. Also, he offered to go buy cake when I was craving some. I declined, but the gesture was really nice.

…a very light bookbag these days, since classes are almost over and I have almost no homework (many nights in a row without homework has been wonderful, though I still have 4 chapters to read by next Thursday).

…5 weeks off between semesters!

…more cookie baking this weekend (Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon).

…that my grandparents are living and well ( gave me an update on last week, and said Grandma had been asking about me).

…that our cats, while completely neurotic and annoying, are alive and healthy (disturbing conversation with the cashier at Bruegger’s this morning, who told me that his cat recently died).

…that last bite of Hershey’s Symphony (I can be thankful for it twice - it was that good).

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In case you love the Mosaic Monday idea yesterday that I stole from another blog, you should know that there’s a whole Flickr group set up for them here. Enjoy!

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How long has IE7 been out now? How long have I had this new template? I’m just getting around to finally changing my name graphics to reflect the fact IE7 supports transparent PNG files and that the background of my blog is not white. Whew! Not much changed. got older. A few people acquired kids in theirs (). lost the frog. But mostly, they’re pretty similar to the old ones (except now they all have transparent backgrounds). In a few cases I changed the font, or couldn’t find the original clip-art on Microsoft’s website (I’m surprised at how many I couldn’t find, actually), but really, things haven’t changed much around here. Except that something that was bugging me (the white-background images on the non-white background of the blog) is finally fixed. Yay me. I could have done a better job with some of them, but I do still have the original flash files so now maybe I will when I feel like it.

I’ve been avoiding the work that’s been given to me, mostly because I don’t want to do it, and partly because tomorrow is going to be even more boring than today, and I have to save myself something to do or I’ll go crazy. Crazy, I tell ya!

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1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? I’m going to say Pumpkin Pie, because as much as I like turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy, they’re not strictly eaten only on Thanksgiving, and I don’t generally want to eat Pumpkin Pie outside of November.
2. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be? Meatloaf. Given a few minutes in iTunes, I could probably list a dozen more, but that’s what I came up with first.
3. You seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy crap, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it? New pants. I feel guilty spending money on them when I really should be doing something to reduce my waistline so that the pants I do own fit, but found money means there’s no guilt, right?
4. What is your favorite curse word? Crap.
5. Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there? 1965. I think it would be really cool to experience (as an observer) some key aspects of the Civil Rights Movement.
6. Bonus (as in optional):You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What’s it gonna be? The power to make other people be quiet at my whim. Or, the power to have whatever waist size I want (4, please).

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I’m stealing this idea from Two Lime Leaves, whose blog I’ve been reading lately (and into the archives). I was going to try to come up with a better name for it, but it really works just great the way it is, so I’m leaving it. Suffice it to say that the idea was hers, the title is hers, and I just liked it enough to try it myself.

Clicking on the above will take you to Flickr, where you can find more details about all of the above items, none of which I can take credit for.

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Today, I am thankful for…

…office jobs downtown, with the flexibility to take a break when I need to.

…not being a schoolteacher yet, because of the aforementioned reason.

…Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold (I’m down to a few Kleenex an hour instead of dozens).

…Emergen-C, even if it’s all in my head, because I will get over this cold fast.

…figuring out how to make a ginormous “G” for ’s quilt (2′ square, approximately).

…making some progress on some other Christmas gifts.

…the Remember The Milk plugin in Gmail, which is ever so helpful now that I immersed myself in swapland.

…Flickr, because it keeps me wildly entertained at work.

…lots of crafting blogs, which also keep me entertained (and learning new stuff).

…family.

…the wall of pictures up in my office, that help remind me of what’s really important.

…being financially solvent enough that we don’t have to sell our house, and we’re actually saving money the longer we live here (silver lining, right?).

…three-day work weeks.

…co-conspiring with over what to bring to Thanksgiving at ’s (just a tiny little switcheroo).

…two Thanksgivings this year (though we haven’t yet planned anything with the other half of ’s family, so it could end up being three).

…lots of yummy foods on the internet (I sense some more linkfest posts coming up).

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I’ve had a really minor cold for like two weeks now. Ridiculously minor, so that I have barely complained about it at all (which is so not like me). I’ve just had a stuffy nose for two weeks. That’s not a big deal, though it does get annoying and I wish it would just get on with it.

Well, relief may be in sight. I’ve passed into the next phase, and now have a runny nose. 6 Kleenexes this morning already. I know, that’s so gross, and you don’t really care, but I’m happy that at least we’re changing it up a bit.

Plus, my eyes itch like crazy. I used my allergy eye drops (because that’s what it feels like, as if I put a lotion that I’m allergic to on my eye), and they’re not working. I’m trying very hard not to rub them, because that would not only ruin my makeup, but just make my eyes all red and more irritated. But it’s driving me crazy.

It was a good weekend, but last night I decided I didn’t want to go to work today. No worries - I did, I just didn’t want to. I didn’t feel like the weekend was long enough. We did get stuff taken to the storage unit (and found my missing winter clothes!), so now can keep his car in the garage. And I made cookies - a trial run for what I wanted to make for Thanksgiving, and now I know what I’d do differently. My co-workers are enjoying the fruits of my labor. And we had a showing of our house on Saturday afternoon. And I bought the rest of the fabric for ’s quilt, and have one of ’s towels almost completely done (like 90%). So, all in all, productive. Just not long enough. Oh well. At least it’s only a 3-day week, right?

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1. Spit it out :: Get on with it
2. Shadow :: Lands
3. Database :: Query
4. Expression :: Facial
5. Boss :: Man (as in… bossman, not as in all bosses are male)
6. Baby :: Cakes
7. Mystic :: Pizza
8. Kate :: Winslet
9. Boobies :: Knockers
10. Raid :: Drive

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Last night was date night (as Thursdays are, though next semester I have a Thursday night class, so date night will be rescheduled to Friday night, which is usually date night like anyways, since I’m always unmotivated to do homework). I left work at 3:30 (since class was canceled and the earliest bus I could catch home was 3:36) and stopped at Michael’s on the way home to pick up some floss I needed, as well as some hoops. I also bought some new needles in the right size, a thimble (not in the right size, that has been adopted by as the greatest cat toy ever, for today at least), and some beeswax (to help me stop my disgusting habit of licking the floss to thread it through the needle. All in under 20 minutes!

We had some lovely spaghetti (cooked by ), and watched Hellboy II (terribly entertaining, I must say). Once the movie was over, I looked at the clock and it was… 7:30. Wow, that’s very early. How’d that happen. But, the brand-new Kowalski’s had opened on Thursday, a mere .9 miles from our house, so we thought we’d check it out. Many other people had the same idea. There were lots of couples and groups of 3 walking around, pointing at things and saying “ooh, they have…” and everybody had a basket with about one thing in it. Regardless of not needing any groceries, we managed to spend $20, which is still cheaper than dinner and a movie.

When we got home, I continued working on the towel I’m embroidering for for Christmas (one of two, actually). I’m really enjoying this particular project, and I’m thinking I can get it wrapped up this weekend, which is also good. It’s bright and colorful and sweet and fun, and she will definitely love it. Plus, I’m using all sorts of different stitches (OK, like four or five), which is nice. Sadly, no pictures for you, again. Hopefully I’ll take some this weekend.

Only a little bit of homework this weekend, and lots of crafting (getting back to work on ’s quilt, since his birthday is in less than a month), slowly emerging from this forced hibernation. Does it count if I think about my friends and family a lot? Because I do, really I do.

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I’m not entirely sure how I pulled it off, but in the end I guess it comes down to my professor’s grading scheme making no sense to me whatsoever. If you remember, the only grade I had left to receive was for the portfolio (circled in red), and I could miss up to 6 points on it. I was totally nervous about that, because if you look at the grades circled in green, those are the other items that were graded by rubric, as the portfolio would be. That’s 80%, 75%, and 86% (but that last one is really 73% for the rubric-graded half, and 100% for the groupmate-graded half). And yet, miraculously, she gave me full credit for my portfolio (a 40+ page document that she kept, as she required us all to make 2 copies so that she could keep one).

I said yesterday that all I wanted was to remember what I wanted to put on the course eval, and to not have to argue for an A.  I got what I wanted on both counts. Yay! I am so relieved that the class is over and my GPA will remain 4.0 after this semester (because there’s virtually no way I’ll get anything less than an A in my other class, seeing as how I have 100% right now).

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to listen to me complain about it anymore? Plus, I get a little bit of my life back, time-wise, after this weekend. One more section of a book to read, and one more paper (that has yet to be assigned).

Also, I just checked my school email and I’m so glad I did - class this afternoon was cancelled because my professor is sick. One class left in December, final assignment cancelled. Officially, I have a 4.0 GPA then. Woo-hoo. Unfortunately, I have to stay here until 3:30 because that’s when the first bus comes. But, I get a few extra minutes in my day then. I did need to stop at Michael’s at some point….

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Yesterday was spent at a regional meeting for work, which was not horrible, but wasn’t spectacular either. My co-worker (the one who is currently not answering phones, regardless of what her actual job responsibilities are) was responsible for registration, which means name tags, getting everyone on the list, etc. She amazingly enough forgot me. Entirely. I just didn’t exist. And then, she didn’t even come, even though she’s on our team (and we were supposed to go with our teams, because we were discussing our strengths, and it was a team-building thing), and while I understand why she didn’t come (social anxiety, anyone?), it still irked me. It also irked me that because she forgot me, I didn’t get any of the emails with the details (so I had to keep asking people beforehand where it was, what time I was supposed to be there, etc), nor did I get the memo about being able to wear jeans. I live to be able to wear jeans, even if it’s just once in a while, to work. Grr.

Today was mega boring at work, and that’s just about all there is to say about that.

Tonight is my last class, so I’ve been alternately anxious and thrilled about that. Anxious, because I’m afraid that I’ll have to argue with my professor about my grade because she’s just wrong, and I hate confrontation and quite frankly she scares me a bit. Thrilled, because I stopped enjoying the class a while ago (though I like my classmates), and I’m even tired of hearing me complain about the professor. Good riddance, I say. Hopefully, only one more blog post will need to be dedicated to the subject.

Last night, having no homework, I whipped up two (2!) small embroidery projects. They are ornaments for a swap (I need to make 10 total - what was I thinking?), and they took just over an hour each. One is snowflakes, and the other a bell. Unfortunately, the lighting at our house was crap, so no pictures just now. I also picked out a design for one of the kitchen towels for , and ironed it onto the towel. It’s in my bag, waiting for me to hop onto the bus to go to class, so that I can start it. It will be bright colors, since, as pointed out, loves colors. It’s true - she’s quite colorful.

I strongly desire a nap. Really, I’m just hoping for 44/50 on my portfolio so I don’t have to argue for my grade, to remember the things I wanted to include on the course evaluation, and for the “end of class activity” to not last too long, so I can go home and go to bed.

and I have been trading emails back and forth about gift ideas for our respective husbands. No one told me that getting married meant coming up with not only a gift idea for myself, but also a slew of ideas for my family, that would be acceptable to the husband. I keep telling them “food,” which they reject, and refuses to do gift cards.

The Doll Quilt Swap 5 quilt went into the mail today, so I should be able to blog about it in all its glory sometime early next week.

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This weekend was far less productive than it should have been. Not that it wasn’t productive, but mostly that I still have 4 chapters of Shock Doctrine to read. We installed a shelf in our garage, and after we take a trip to the storage unit, will be able to put his car in the garage for the winter. I forgot to take pictures, though, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Saturday while , his dad and his brother were watching the new 007, I was [by choice] stranded at Southdale Mall, where I attempted to find a purse. You see, both my big purse and my little purse are falling apart. The little one has maybe a week left of life in it, tops. The big one has months of life left, but it continues to look crappier and crappier because it’s got a big huge hole in it. So, I attempted to use the mall to find a cute wristlet (that didn’t cost $50 like the Fossil ones I’ve fallen in love for). No dice. Apparently no one really makes wristlets. Marshall’s could have had a good selection, but they only carry big purses. Bummer for me. The last four purses I’ve bought online, so I’m having a bit of a problem finding one in a brick-and-mortar store. Maybe this is why I’ve bought time online…. I know I said I would make both of them, but I just haven’t had the time, and considering their rapid deterioration, and the fact that going purseless is not an option, I think I’m at the point where money can be spent.

I did, however, find new dress socks (trouser socks that I’ve been so desperately needing now that it’s “winter”), and kitchen towels for for Christmas that I can embroider (and a set for us as well, because they were cute and cheap). So, it wasn’t a total bust.

Sunday I worked very hard and finished my contribution to the Doll Quilt Swap 5. I can only show you this now, because until the intended has received it, I can’t talk too much about it or I might give away who it’s for.

We blitzed the grocery store last night in 15 minutes! For the whole week’s worth of groceries! And then we went to the gym. And then finally, at 8:30 Sunday night, I got one measly chapter of homework read.

Tonight, has an appointment at Lenscrafters, where he will be getting an eye exam and new glasses (which means that two of my three “nag items” as far as his health is concerned will be taken care of, and I only have to get him to go to the doctor for an annual check-up, and when I say annual, I mean “at least once in the 3+ years that I’ve known you, please, now that you have excellent health insurance that means you can go for free). I’m going to try to get some homework done while waiting for him to do that, though I might also stop in at Gap Body, or browse into Macy’s to stare lustfully at their Fossil purses.

Once I’m caught up on homework, I need to go to JoAnn’s to get the last of the fabric for ’s quilt, and start on some Christmas presents that I’m making (”some” might be an understatement, but many are quite small).

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