Friday, January 28, 2011

the "Honeymoon Phase"

Just enjoying some peace & quiet before going to pick Angel up from Emaly’s house later. Randy & Ted went up north to work at the Sno-drift Rally, which is a rally car race, but on snow & ice. I made him take my camera. Guess the comm. people needed some input on how to improve their set up. At first they were going to just check things out, but I think they’re going to be more involved than expected.

Back when I was doing Weight Watchers, my leader would occasionally mention Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone www.dlwz.com as another source to help with our weight loss journey. I’d use the site to look up points values for restaurants & signed up for the newsletters, but never really read them all the way thru. The latest newsletter caught my attention (issue 112 from 1/22/11). They had an article about the Honeymoon Phase & it kind of hit home! They talk about what it is and how to keep it. I discovered I really like their articles & journals (Dotti’s & her husband Al) - they’re real people with real issues & have a great sense of humor. Anyway…I joined their message boards & stuff and will really get more involved after March 10 – which is my target date to rejoin WW!!! It will be exactly 5 months from when I went “on sabbatical” which sounds better than “when I quit” – LOL!! Dotti also talks about these hypnosis CDs that she uses to help keep her head straight. So I ordered them. I checked into them a bit & they have a BBB A+ rating, plus you can pay all at once, or break it into 3 payments. And there’s a one year money back guarantee. So what the heck?? Can’t hurt to try! Those were the CDs I was downloading. They also threw in one on mental toughness that I think Randy might benefit from. With all the BS he’s going thru at work… yeah.

I really should be transplanting some plants – Telly’s had Christmas cactuses for $.99 !!! So I got another. I hope its red like the tag says. Plus 2 lime green philodendrons. Love them & they’re fairly easy to grow. I actually could be doing all sorts of stuff, but instead I’m here downloading some CDs onto my iPod & blogging.


Monday I was annoyed with both Randy & Angel. They are so much alike in their stubbornness it makes me crazy. Not even going into details or I’d be here all night & my fingers would be nubs. Anyway, she was at dance & Randy was at home so I ran a couple errands & stopped in the Salvation Army. I was on a quest for some non-black pants for work. Ended up with a black skirt instead (rolling eyes – but it’s WARM!!!) and I also found what I thought was the creepiest doll I’d ever seen. I even had her covered up in the basket so she couldn’t look at me. Then I got her home and decided she really isn’t that creepy after all. Anyway, my plan is to zombify her but as I looked closer, I don’t want to make her over-the-top nasty. I’m going for a more elegant Goth look, if possible.

"Anabel"

She’s actually handmade. Her body is linen stuffed with some kind of dark stuff & her entire head (not just her face) is porcelain, along with her lower arms & legs. Her head had been broken at one time and the crack along her one cheek has some small chips missing, so it almost looks like a scar. It broke cleanly across the other side of her face & the back of her head – you can hardly see the damage. So far, I’ve gotten her dress washed & I plan to dye it black this weekend. I posted a question on Halloween Forum to find out what kind of paint to use on her face to keep the beautiful smooth porcelain look. Acrylic wouldn’t look as nice. I want to do a really super pale gray skin tone, darker gray eyes and black lips.

Alrighty – peace & quiet is gone. The inevitable happened – Angel was at friend’s house, now friend is here for the night. I’m OK with it. Emaly is a pretty good kid. Very polite. She’ll text my phone & ask nicely if Angel can text. They played on the Wii for a while & they’ve already settled down with a movie. I won’t let them stay up late – Angel’s got dance at 0830 and she’s already expecting a stop at Tim Horton’s on the way.

I started a small blowmold collection! I went on eBay out of boredom & scored! I straight up bought the Halloween totem pole. I bid for & won the toy soldier. I won a bidding war in the last seconds for the stack of bunnies (& I will love that thing, just for that reason! I fought for it!!) then I bought another toy solider. 2 have already shipped, so they should start arriving soon.



The other toy solider is slightly taller with a white cover. Easy enough to paint!

OMG, Laurie called me before I left for work last Friday (causing a moment of panic!!) and told me that she won 4 tickets from a radio station for a “Bachelorette Bash” at this bar in Washington Twp. So of course it was me, Linda & Catie who went with her. It was pretty fun. It was a fund raiser for the Michigan Burn Camp & put on by different fire departments. There was a guy auction, with a couple firemen, a DJ from the radio station & a couple other random guys. We ran into cousins Naomi & Janet there and we were all going to pool our $$ to buy Laurie a guy. We ended up not needing to, because she won a gift basket from Pure Romance full of lotions & interesting toys (we opened the wrapping to look while she was getting her reading!) So she was all set for the weekend!! There were some tables set up with stuff to sell; Pure Romance & Naughty Time Novelty, etc. We also got a free 4 minute psychic reading.

That was the neatest thing! I shuffled the tarot cards & thought of 3 questions, then she read my palm. The first thing she said was that I’d been in a relationship for a long time. Yup. Right about 9 years now! Then she asked if I had 2 kids. Uhhh no. then she said I was going to play a big part in another child’s life, possibly a grandchild (I hope not for a LONG time!!) She said I was intelligent, creative & I don’t sugarcoat what I’m thinking (LOL!! She hit that on the nose!) I’d asked about Randy’s job and she said it was not a good fit for him and now is the best time for him to be looking for a new one. I asked about Angel, if she’d ever do well in school. She saw that Angel is very active and said that academics are not her forte but whatever she chooses to do in life, she’ll do well. Whew!  I don’t think I ever thought of a 3rd question. She asked me to tell her about the move in the next year. Ummm, there isn’t one that I know of, but we’re OK with it if it happens! She said it was a good opportunity for us. Then she wanted to know if I had any health problems. Nope, I’m pretty healthy. She said she saw issues with my legs or hips. I do have occasional bouts of my knee acting up & I do have a referral to an orthopedic specialist to check them out, but I haven’t called. She kept saying she thought it was my hips that are the problem. Then she asked if I’d ever tried massage therapy & to have a massage & concentrate on my legs, since it’s all connected. OK! That’s pretty amazing.

But I’m so glad I wasn’t driving!! I was mixing Bud Light with Magic Martini with Labatt Blue Light with a mixed something shot (yuck – Crown Royal!!) with Labatt Blue with a Johnny Vegas shot with another Blue… yeah –felt no pain! I haven’t drank like that in years!  Darn Catie who is a bartender & wanted me to drink with her.  Luckily I woke up around 3 and was thirsty. So I got up & fixed some Crystal Lite to drink slowly & took 3 aspirin. So I only had a mild headache when I got up at 8 to take Maggie to the vet for her check up.

Hmmm, the girls are getting ready to chocolate mud masks that they got from Kmart, so I better go watch & giggle. Too bad Randy has my camera!


                                                            Yet another Spirit Day!

the "Honeymoon Phase"

Just enjoying some peace & quiet before going to pick Angel up from Emaly’s house later. Randy & Ted went up north to work at the Sno-drift Rally, which is a rally car race, but on snow & ice. I made him take my camera. Guess the comm. people needed some input on how to improve their set up. At first they were going to just check things out, but I think they’re going to be more involved than expected.

Back when I was doing Weight Watchers, my leader would occasionally mention Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone www.dlwz.com as another source to help with our weight loss journey. I’d use the site to look up points values for restaurants & signed up for the newsletters, but never really read them all the way thru. The latest newsletter caught my attention (issue 112 from 1/22/11). They had an article about the Honeymoon Phase & it kind of hit home! They talk about what it is and how to keep it. I discovered I really like their articles & journals (Dotti’s & her husband Al) - they’re real people with real issues & have a great sense of humor. Anyway…I joined their message boards & stuff and will really get more involved after March 10 – which is my target date to rejoin WW!!! It will be exactly 5 months from when I went “on sabbatical” which sounds better than “when I quit” – LOL!! Dotti also talks about these hypnosis CDs that she uses to help keep her head straight. So I ordered them. I checked into them a bit & they have a BBB A+ rating, plus you can pay all at once, or break it into 3 payments. And there’s a one year money back guarantee. So what the heck?? Can’t hurt to try! Those were the CDs I was downloading. They also threw in one on mental toughness that I think Randy might benefit from. With all the BS he’s going thru at work… yeah.

I really should be transplanting some plants – Telly’s had Christmas cactuses for $.99 !!! So I got another. I hope its red like the tag says. Plus 2 lime green philodendrons. Love them & they’re fairly easy to grow. I actually could be doing all sorts of stuff, but instead I’m here downloading some CDs onto my iPod & blogging.


Monday I was annoyed with both Randy & Angel. They are so much alike in their stubbornness it makes me crazy. Not even going into details or I’d be here all night & my fingers would be nubs. Anyway, she was at dance & Randy was at home so I ran a couple errands & stopped in the Salvation Army. I was on a quest for some non-black pants for work. Ended up with a black skirt instead (rolling eyes – but it’s WARM!!!) and I also found what I thought was the creepiest doll I’d ever seen. I even had her covered up in the basket so she couldn’t look at me. Then I got her home and decided she really isn’t that creepy after all. Anyway, my plan is to zombify her but as I looked closer, I don’t want to make her over-the-top nasty. I’m going for a more elegant Goth look, if possible.

"Anabel"

She’s actually handmade. Her body is linen stuffed with some kind of dark stuff & her entire head (not just her face) is porcelain, along with her lower arms & legs. Her head had been broken at one time and the crack along her one cheek has some small chips missing, so it almost looks like a scar. It broke cleanly across the other side of her face & the back of her head – you can hardly see the damage. So far, I’ve gotten her dress washed & I plan to dye it black this weekend. I posted a question on Halloween Forum to find out what kind of paint to use on her face to keep the beautiful smooth porcelain look. Acrylic wouldn’t look as nice. I want to do a really super pale gray skin tone, darker gray eyes and black lips.

Alrighty – peace & quiet is gone. The inevitable happened – Angel was at friend’s house, now friend is here for the night. I’m OK with it. Emaly is a pretty good kid. Very polite. She’ll text my phone & ask nicely if Angel can text. They played on the Wii for a while & they’ve already settled down with a movie. I won’t let them stay up late – Angel’s got dance at 0830 and she’s already expecting a stop at Tim Horton’s on the way.

I started a small blowmold collection! I went on eBay out of boredom & scored! I straight up bought the Halloween totem pole. I bid for & won the toy soldier. I won a bidding war in the last seconds for the stack of bunnies (& I will love that thing, just for that reason! I fought for it!!) then I bought another toy solider. 2 have already shipped, so they should start arriving soon.



The other toy solider is slightly taller with a white cover. Easy enough to paint!

OMG, Laurie called me before I left for work last Friday (causing a moment of panic!!) and told me that she won 4 tickets from a radio station for a “Bachelorette Bash” at this bar in Washington Twp. So of course it was me, Linda & Catie who went with her. It was pretty fun. It was a fund raiser for the Michigan Burn Camp & put on by different fire departments. There was a guy auction, with a couple firemen, a DJ from the radio station & a couple other random guys. We ran into cousins Naomi & Janet there and we were all going to pool our $$ to buy Laurie a guy. We ended up not needing to, because she won a gift basket from Pure Romance full of lotions & interesting toys (we opened the wrapping to look while she was getting her reading!) So she was all set for the weekend!! There were some tables set up with stuff to sell; Pure Romance & Naughty Time Novelty, etc. We also got a free 4 minute psychic reading.

That was the neatest thing! I shuffled the tarot cards & thought of 3 questions, then she read my palm. The first thing she said was that I’d been in a relationship for a long time. Yup. Right about 9 years now! Then she asked if I had 2 kids. Uhhh no. then she said I was going to play a big part in another child’s life, possibly a grandchild (I hope not for a LONG time!!) She said I was intelligent, creative & I don’t sugarcoat what I’m thinking (LOL!! She hit that on the nose!) I’d asked about Randy’s job and she said it was not a good fit for him and now is the best time for him to be looking for a new one. I asked about Angel, if she’d ever do well in school. She saw that Angel is very active and said that academics are not her forte but whatever she chooses to do in life, she’ll do well. Whew!  I don’t think I ever thought of a 3rd question. She asked me to tell her about the move in the next year. Ummm, there isn’t one that I know of, but we’re OK with it if it happens! She said it was a good opportunity for us. Then she wanted to know if I had any health problems. Nope, I’m pretty healthy. She said she saw issues with my legs or hips. I do have occasional bouts of my knee acting up & I do have a referral to an orthopedic specialist to check them out, but I haven’t called. She kept saying she thought it was my hips that are the problem. Then she asked if I’d ever tried massage therapy & to have a massage & concentrate on my legs, since it’s all connected. OK! That’s pretty amazing.

But I’m so glad I wasn’t driving!! I was mixing Bud Light with Magic Martini with Labatt Blue Light with a mixed something shot (yuck – Crown Royal!!) with Labatt Blue with a Johnny Vegas shot with another Blue… yeah –felt no pain! I haven’t drank like that in years!  Darn Catie who is a bartender & wanted me to drink with her.  Luckily I woke up around 3 and was thirsty. So I got up & fixed some Crystal Lite to drink slowly & took 3 aspirin. So I only had a mild headache when I got up at 8 to take Maggie to the vet for her check up.

Hmmm, the girls are getting ready to chocolate mud masks that they got from Kmart, so I better go watch & giggle. Too bad Randy has my camera!


                                                            Yet another Spirit Day! 

Friday, January 14, 2011

Tangent...

I am so sick of Kid Rock!!  I can't wait until this damn concert is over tomorrow so we don't have to hear about it between every song on most every radio station (makes me thankful for XM & my iPod even more!!)

First I was offended that they actually rescheduled MonsterJam so he could kick off his tour at Ford Field (aka Fourty Field ~gag~ ) on his birthday.  But then I saw the benefits of the change - every year, Monster Jam is the same night as opening day of the Auto Show...which makes parking a bitch.  So having it last weekend was rather pleasant.  So all the morons heading to the concert tomorrow will have to deal with - not just the Auto Show traffic - but people going to the Red Wings game, too!!  NEENER NEENER !!!

Look, dude!  You're turning 40- shouldn't you change your name to Middle Aged Rock ????   And I'd like to get hold of the programming guy from WYCD and kick him in the ass for deciding to play Kid on the country station!!!!   But I confess I do like the song Born Free and am toying with the idea of downloading it to my iPod.  And he's way less offensive than the vocal screeching & whining of Taylor Swift !!!

So that's my tangent.

Just waiting for Randy to get home from work to head over to Mom's for our much belated Christmas gathering.  We drew names for the gift exchange, which is wonderful...until Linda said she'd gotten a little something for both me & Laurie.  Then Laurie said the same thing.  DAMN YOU PEOPLE ! ! !  Luckily I found some cute cheap candle holders at Hobby Lobby in Hot Springs, so they're getting  identical gifts,just different colors.  I did make them, Mom & Mom L. bead ornaments.  Mom's is pink & purple coral & pearls, Laurie's is all pink coral & pearls, Linda's is all purple coral & pearls.  Mom L. got a special one.  Her's was clear square crystals & clear dark blue squares with heart shaped charms on each strand.  I also made me one similar to Mom L.'s but with clear & turquoise squares & chunky green stones on the bottom.  Yeah - Angel thought that matched (rolling eyes).

Looking forward to a quiet (hopefully - if Randy's work pager doesn't go off!) weekend at home!

Tangent...

I am so sick of Kid Rock!!  I can't wait until this damn concert is over tomorrow so we don't have to hear about it between every song on most every radio station (makes me thankful for XM & my iPod even more!!)

First I was offended that they actually rescheduled MonsterJam so he could kick off his tour at Ford Field (aka Fourty Field ~gag~ ) on his birthday.  But then I saw the benefits of the change - every year, Monster Jam is the same night as opening day of the Auto Show...which makes parking a bitch.  So having it last weekend was rather pleasant.  So all the morons heading to the concert tomorrow will have to deal with - not just the Auto Show traffic - but people going to the Red Wings game, too!!  NEENER NEENER !!!

Look, dude!  You're turning 40- shouldn't you change your name to Middle Aged Rock ????   And I'd like to get hold of the programming guy from WYCD and kick him in the ass for deciding to play Kid on the country station!!!!   But I confess I do like the song Born Free and am toying with the idea of downloading it to my iPod.  And he's way less offensive than the vocal screeching & whining of Taylor Swift !!!

So that's my tangent.

Just waiting for Randy to get home from work to head over to Mom's for our much belated Christmas gathering.  We drew names for the gift exchange, which is wonderful...until Linda said she'd gotten a little something for both me & Laurie.  Then Laurie said the same thing.  DAMN YOU PEOPLE ! ! !  Luckily I found some cute cheap candle holders at Hobby Lobby in Hot Springs, so they're getting  identical gifts,just different colors.  I did make them, Mom & Mom L. bead ornaments.  Mom's is pink & purple coral & pearls, Laurie's is all pink coral & pearls, Linda's is all purple coral & pearls.  Mom L. got a special one.  Her's was clear square crystals & clear dark blue squares with heart shaped charms on each strand.  I also made me one similar to Mom L.'s but with clear & turquoise squares & chunky green stones on the bottom.  Yeah - Angel thought that matched (rolling eyes).

Looking forward to a quiet (hopefully - if Randy's work pager doesn't go off!) weekend at home!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1st post of 2011!!

Ooops, and I missed when it was 11:11 this morning. Probably be asleep tonight! Shucks.  I don't know what that means anyway. 

Darn, gonna be another long post! New Year’s resolution- post more often!!!

So let’s see. We had a nice trip to Arkansas over Christmas. We left Wednesday the 22nd and had clear, sunny, cold weather all the way there, light traffic & one tiny spot of construction south of Mt. Vernon IL where it went down to one lane for all of 1/8 of a mile & I had to slow down to 55 – yes!! Randy let me drive!! We rented a car so we weren’t so cramped. Got a 2011 HHR with only 7077 miles on it – Woooooo! We weren’t crazy about the leather seats, but the seat warmers were nice! Anyway…the weather wasn’t much warmer than it was here, until the day before we left. Then it was upper 50s and raining. Pppft.

Christmas was nice. Randy got us a Wii and had it shipped there, so it was a surprise to Pnut. We got a Pet Vet game, a Monster Truck race & mini golf. And Wii Fit, too. It’s been pretty fun so far. She also got an MP3 player that hopefully she won’t lose like the last one, the Eclipse DVD and the first 4 books of the Vampire Diaries. Mom L. got her a makeup mirror that she went nuts over. So did niece Indira – trust teenage girls to love mirrors!! I got Randy his ARRL Handbook and a Red Green book. Pnut got him a Tim Horton’s mug & bag of coffee. I got an iTunes card and some cool vases (imagine men / women bathroom signs but without heads!). I’m forgetting what else we got.

We didn’t do a lot of exciting things. I did make my trip to the bathhouse, so I was happy. It was a slow day so I got a tub that hadn’t been used that day – which meant it had been sitting there & cooled off. It was barely 100 degrees. Booo. But as usual, the ladies were really nice so I gave them both a hefty tip. Hey, it was the holidays! I also bought myself a mini-tub with a bar of Dead Sea Scrub in it. It’s so cute!!

We went to Garvan Woodland Gardens one night to see the Christmas lights.  Very cool.  They had chandeliers & all sorts of cool stuff along the paths.  Another night we went to Iron Mountain Marina where we could go down onto the docks and people had their fancy houseboats all decked out in lights & stuff.  It was cold, but fun.
 Even the bathrooms were decorated!!
One of the houseboats.  

So the day before we left, Randy was working on his to-do list for Mom so Angel & I went to the Mall. Woooo. Hot Springs Mall is about 1/3 the size of Lakeside. But it was carpeted, so we were mildly impressed. We also stopped at Lowe’s and got these things – how awesome ! ! ! !  I know they’re garden items, but they’re great!! Mr. Clean will enjoy them in front of his tank.


So it was nice to get home. It sucked having to wait until 1/3 to get my BIG Christmas present. The Friday before we left, the washer finally crapped out. It had been worn out for probably 2 years anyway & it was ready to go to the great landfill in the sky. So I got a brand new high efficiency washer & dryer! LOVE THEM ! ! ! So much quicker then the old set. And uses a lot less water, which is good for the septic tank. Randy was fascinated because they are our first high-tech appliances. I have found that I am folding clothes right as they come out of the dryer now!! And the tops are curved, so nothing is getting piled on top of the dryer. Amazing!!

I had taken that Monday off work so it was a good day to get them delivered. They didn’t come til afternoon, so I was able to moving the table & all my plants so the delivery guys could get in. Then I went to check out Garden Ridge, since I’d never been there. All their Christmas stuff was 75% off – so I got the last 5 boxes of LED icicle lights & our first inflatables – and they’re HUGE!! I also got some funky ornaments & a 2 foot tall Santa to go with our snowman. Got a lot of stuff for only $55 !!! I love clearance sales!



Tuesday the 4th I had to go back to work. Sigh. I’d moved to Arlene’s office before we left for Arkansas and I swear that office was possessed. My mouse and/or keyboard would either freeze or do bizarre things at random. So the 2 days before I left I didn’t get much work done because of fighting with that. Oh – they remodeled the dispatch office, which is why things were crazy. We got new carpet (an ugly reddish-brown) and the walls got finished off & painted a dark flat grayish green (aka prison-cell green) with tan trim. The entire overhead is flat charcoal gray. Why they didn’t match the color scheme to the front part of the building is beyond me. I think I just hate flat paint, that’s the problem. Anyway – moving back to my old desk exorcised the computer demon. Been working fine ever since. It’s pretty funny that all of dispatch is on one side of the room and I’m on the other side all by myself. My desk is a little island!

Right before we left, I also got my new Adopt-A-Platoon pen pals. I decided to do this instead of sending stuff to an entire group; I just have to send letters / cards once a week to 4 guys. They’re all married so their wives must not be exciting people. One guy has a birthday soon, so I got a bunch of munchies to send to him. I think he’ll be surprised since I’ve only sent one letter as of this moment.

Somewhat good news! I was talking about Randy’s work issues….he was in the cafeteria one day and glanced at a newspaper that someone else was reading & saw IT job listings for Oakland County!!! He fit the requirements perfectly!! So he applied. Hopefully he hears something soon. I think he’d be a lot happier there. And it’s across the parking lot from the EOC!! He was concerned about his resume looking like he was demoted at RGIS since he’s not a team leader anymore. I told him it was because of company restructuring! Lots of places are doing that! Keeping fingers crossed!!

Last Saturday we made our annual trek to Ford Field to see Monster Jam.  It was supposed to be this weekend but they rescheduled so Kid Rock could kick off his new tour on his birthday - at "Fourty Field" ~gag~.  The good thing about that was every other year, Monster Jam managed to be on opening day of the Auto Show so it is crazy downtown & parking is insane.  Being a week earlier was nice.  We missed the anthem & beginning stuff because we went to Hockeytown Cafe for dinner.  It was over an hour wait, but the food was really good.  We need to go back there either during the week or much earlier on Saturday.  Blue Thunder & Avenger weren't there, but Maximum Destruction was. It was the first time we'd seen Max D ever.  Of course he won the freestyle.  Apparently there are 2 shows next year !!!  I know we'll go to at least one of them!
OK, I apparently am being struck with random ADD again since I can’t think of anything else to write about. Of course I have the XM playing in the background, so that’s distracting. That and my spacebar is sticking!! Grr!
Our major source of entertainment!  Angel's snaggletooth which thankfully FINALLY came out on NYE.

1st post of 2011!!

Ooops, and I missed when it was 11:11 this morning. Probably be asleep tonight! Shucks.  I don't know what that means anyway. 

Darn, gonna be another long post! New Year’s resolution- post more often!!!

So let’s see. We had a nice trip to Arkansas over Christmas. We left Wednesday the 22nd and had clear, sunny, cold weather all the way there, light traffic & one tiny spot of construction south of Mt. Vernon IL where it went down to one lane for all of 1/8 of a mile & I had to slow down to 55 – yes!! Randy let me drive!! We rented a car so we weren’t so cramped. Got a 2011 HHR with only 7077 miles on it – Woooooo! We weren’t crazy about the leather seats, but the seat warmers were nice! Anyway…the weather wasn’t much warmer than it was here, until the day before we left. Then it was upper 50s and raining. Pppft.

Christmas was nice. Randy got us a Wii and had it shipped there, so it was a surprise to Pnut. We got a Pet Vet game, a Monster Truck race & mini golf. And Wii Fit, too. It’s been pretty fun so far. She also got an MP3 player that hopefully she won’t lose like the last one, the Eclipse DVD and the first 4 books of the Vampire Diaries. Mom L. got her a makeup mirror that she went nuts over. So did niece Indira – trust teenage girls to love mirrors!! I got Randy his ARRL Handbook and a Red Green book. Pnut got him a Tim Horton’s mug & bag of coffee. I got an iTunes card and some cool vases (imagine men / women bathroom signs but without heads!). I’m forgetting what else we got.

We didn’t do a lot of exciting things. I did make my trip to the bathhouse, so I was happy. It was a slow day so I got a tub that hadn’t been used that day – which meant it had been sitting there & cooled off. It was barely 100 degrees. Booo. But as usual, the ladies were really nice so I gave them both a hefty tip. Hey, it was the holidays! I also bought myself a mini-tub with a bar of Dead Sea Scrub in it. It’s so cute!!

We went to Garvan Woodland Gardens one night to see the Christmas lights.  Very cool.  They had chandeliers & all sorts of cool stuff along the paths.  Another night we went to Iron Mountain Marina where we could go down onto the docks and people had their fancy houseboats all decked out in lights & stuff.  It was cold, but fun.
 Even the bathrooms were decorated!!
One of the houseboats.  

So the day before we left, Randy was working on his to-do list for Mom so Angel & I went to the Mall. Woooo. Hot Springs Mall is about 1/3 the size of Lakeside. But it was carpeted, so we were mildly impressed. We also stopped at Lowe’s and got these things – how awesome ! ! ! !  I know they’re garden items, but they’re great!! Mr. Clean will enjoy them in front of his tank.


So it was nice to get home. It sucked having to wait until 1/3 to get my BIG Christmas present. The Friday before we left, the washer finally crapped out. It had been worn out for probably 2 years anyway & it was ready to go to the great landfill in the sky. So I got a brand new high efficiency washer & dryer! LOVE THEM ! ! ! So much quicker then the old set. And uses a lot less water, which is good for the septic tank. Randy was fascinated because they are our first high-tech appliances. I have found that I am folding clothes right as they come out of the dryer now!! And the tops are curved, so nothing is getting piled on top of the dryer. Amazing!!

I had taken that Monday off work so it was a good day to get them delivered. They didn’t come til afternoon, so I was able to moving the table & all my plants so the delivery guys could get in. Then I went to check out Garden Ridge, since I’d never been there. All their Christmas stuff was 75% off – so I got the last 5 boxes of LED icicle lights & our first inflatables – and they’re HUGE!! I also got some funky ornaments & a 2 foot tall Santa to go with our snowman. Got a lot of stuff for only $55 !!! I love clearance sales!



Tuesday the 4th I had to go back to work. Sigh. I’d moved to Arlene’s office before we left for Arkansas and I swear that office was possessed. My mouse and/or keyboard would either freeze or do bizarre things at random. So the 2 days before I left I didn’t get much work done because of fighting with that. Oh – they remodeled the dispatch office, which is why things were crazy. We got new carpet (an ugly reddish-brown) and the walls got finished off & painted a dark flat grayish green (aka prison-cell green) with tan trim. The entire overhead is flat charcoal gray. Why they didn’t match the color scheme to the front part of the building is beyond me. I think I just hate flat paint, that’s the problem. Anyway – moving back to my old desk exorcised the computer demon. Been working fine ever since. It’s pretty funny that all of dispatch is on one side of the room and I’m on the other side all by myself. My desk is a little island!

Right before we left, I also got my new Adopt-A-Platoon pen pals. I decided to do this instead of sending stuff to an entire group; I just have to send letters / cards once a week to 4 guys. They’re all married so their wives must not be exciting people. One guy has a birthday soon, so I got a bunch of munchies to send to him. I think he’ll be surprised since I’ve only sent one letter as of this moment.

Somewhat good news! I was talking about Randy’s work issues….he was in the cafeteria one day and glanced at a newspaper that someone else was reading & saw IT job listings for Oakland County!!! He fit the requirements perfectly!! So he applied. Hopefully he hears something soon. I think he’d be a lot happier there. And it’s across the parking lot from the EOC!! He was concerned about his resume looking like he was demoted at RGIS since he’s not a team leader anymore. I told him it was because of company restructuring! Lots of places are doing that! Keeping fingers crossed!!

Last Saturday we made our annual trek to Ford Field to see Monster Jam.  It was supposed to be this weekend but they rescheduled so Kid Rock could kick off his new tour on his birthday - at "Fourty Field" ~gag~.  The good thing about that was every other year, Monster Jam managed to be on opening day of the Auto Show so it is crazy downtown & parking is insane.  Being a week earlier was nice.  We missed the anthem & beginning stuff because we went to Hockeytown Cafe for dinner.  It was over an hour wait, but the food was really good.  We need to go back there either during the week or much earlier on Saturday.  Blue Thunder & Avenger weren't there, but Maximum Destruction was. It was the first time we'd seen Max D ever.  Of course he won the freestyle.  Apparently there are 2 shows next year !!!  I know we'll go to at least one of them!
OK, I apparently am being struck with random ADD again since I can’t think of anything else to write about. Of course I have the XM playing in the background, so that’s distracting. That and my spacebar is sticking!! Grr!
Our major source of entertainment!  Angel's snaggletooth which thankfully FINALLY came out on NYE.