November 2, 2011

Two Big Things

The first Big Thing around our house this time of year is Halloween (in case you’ve forgotten or couldn’t guess). Our tradition of decorating for Halloween (our home and my work space), carving our pumpkins while watching Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin DVD, and my annual Barbie Doll outfit are things that we always look forward to doing!

Tony changed things up a little bit this year with the decorations on our home. He set up the flashing light and scary sounds CD so that they broadcasted through the vent of our garage, instead of on our front stoop. That made it a much more pleasant experience for us while we carved our pumpkins and watched Charlie Brown. He also moved the scary grim reaper closer to our front door making it appear as if he wanted to welcome our visitors with a warm embrace. The motion sensor "Welcome" was a big hit (to us) because it scared my mom every time she entered the house. Gotta love that! ha

Even though I didn’t win the decorating contest at work this year (like I did last year), personally I think the decoration of my work space was BETTER than last year’s decorations… and I even baked a shit-ton of pumpkin cookies to bribe my co-workers! ha I think we waited too long to decorate this year, since my area doesn’t get the foot traffic that the other departments get. But, Tony and I had fun decorating and my mom had fun watching us. We all had fun taking it down yesterday!

Cookie bribery for co-workers — Pumpkin caramel chocolate chip, Pumpkin oatmeal raisin and Pumpkin date:

Tony getting ready to carve his pumpkin:

Me getting ready to carve my pumpkin:

Carved pumpkins… Tony did the werewolf pumpkin. I did the "Best Friends" pumpkin:

Last, but not least, I decided to wear my favorite Halloween t-shirt to work this year and go with the whole Boney Barney theme, with my work space, me and Barbie. This necessitated the creation of a t-shirt for Barbie that matched mine. As you may recall, I go through this every year and am usually up until the wee hours of the morning hand stitching a tiny outfit for her. I was quite proud of myself for digging out Barbie’s wardrobe and assessing the situation early this year, which enabled me to create a matching outfit with a little less stress in preparation that reaped a TON of compliments and amazement due to the tiniest details that matched.

Barbie’s outfit:

My outfit:

The second Big Thing is my birthday, the day after Halloween… or All Saint’s Day. Because I’m just that saintly!

If there’s such a thing as ordering up a perfect birthday, I somehow must have done so yesterday! With a quiet, relatively stress-free work day, getting bright autumn colored flowers from my bosses, briefly seeing my friend, Grace (always a bright spot, no matter how short the time), discovering that our community pool was still being heated last night, sweet birthday cards from my loved ones, and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the whole world with family… on a Tuesday night, meaning everyone felt I was special enough to come out and play on a school night.

Pretty birthday flowers:

Oh — and it’s not over yet, we still have a weekend in the mountains that we’re anticipating!

P.S. I know the pictures won’t display correctly — sorry! I’m posting by e-mail, so I’ll fix them later this evening.

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Filed under I did something Special, I have Family, I have Friends, We Love to Decorate

October 27, 2011

Frightful weekend!

As it turned out, last weekend ended up being our weekend to participate in fun and special Halloween things! The local historical park just down the road from us has an annual Fright Night. Our calendars have never meshed in the past to allow us to attend, so we usually ended up attending Knott’s Scary Farm or Universal Studio’s Halloween thing on a different weekend in October. Plus, I didn’t figure the local event would be all that impressive. This year, we happened to be available, so I lowered my expectations for the event and ended up being pleasantly surprised.

True, it wasn’t nearly as scary as the "professional" places, but they did have creepy, scary people roaming around. Their attempts to scare me always make me laugh at them anyway, so I got lots of laughs. They also REALLY did a lot of work with their Halloween lights (which were everywhere) and creepy sound boxes and frightful decorations dangling around.

The old schoolhouse, lit up with Halloween lights:

Weird (headless) bride and groom on the steps of the church:

Lots of Halloween lights everywhere:

On Saturday, the same place had a family event, so we invited the family over for a BBQ and then headed down the hill. The decorations were still up, but the scary-creepy people were gone and the freaky sound boxes were turned off. They had a craft area for the kids, local vendors who were giving away swag, games, a little pumpkin patch, kid friendly mazes, a costume parade, storytelling time, and kid friendly characters, many of whom were handing out candy. Captain Jack Sparrow even showed up to take pictures and hand out candy!

All in all, I think it was really well done and I actually did end up being impressed!

The schoolhouse the next day, not so scary! And Harry Potter was inside talking to the people who were wandering through.
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Captain Jack showed up. I have no idea who that kid is, I just wanted a picture of Captain Jack and his side kick!

I had purchased tickets through Groupon for one of the Queen Mary’s scary nights… and Sunday was the night. So off we headed for that! I was a little intimidated when we got to the area and the line to enter the parking lot was just ridiculous. Then the line to exchange the voucher for a ticket was ridiculous… more ridiculous, even, than getting into Disneyland on a busy summer day. At one point while we were waiting in one of those lines, I told Tony, "This event better not suck once we get in, because THAT would REALLY suck!" I know, I have a gift of phrasing things, don’t I?

Fortunately, the event was really fun and cool. There were a ton of people there and, as a result, the lines for the mazes sucked, but I never felt claustrophobic like I did at Knott’s Scary Farm that one year. However, if we do the event again (which we likely will), I think it would be worth it to spring the extra dough for the front of the line pass. But — they had live DJ’s in a couple different areas, one welcoming you into the entrance maze and one who entertained the line for another maze, along with some really cool pyrotechnics. They had a ton of creepy, scary zombie people who were really talented… better than the ones at Knott’s Scary Farm, I thought. One guy slid about 15 feet, sparks coming up off his knees, and stopped within inches of me! My response to him? "Whoa! That was cool!" He just stared at me. ha

We only had time to do a couple of mazes, and one of those went through the alleged haunted pool area of the Queen Mary. The whole thing was just a cool experience.

Queen Mary:

The “welcoming” DJ:

The haunted pool area:

Fortunately, the Groupon deal I purchased includes a day pass that we can use anytime through December 2012. I’m really looking forward to going back for that! This week it’s just been back to the usual… almost the weekend again!

(I’m trying out the post-by-email feature with this blog post. Hopefully it displays correctly…)

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Filed under Entertainment can be Cheap, I did something Special

October 17, 2011

Living Life.

On my way home from work one day last week, my car sputtered when I took off from a start. Those dratted traffic monitor lights on the freeway on ramp only make people sit in frustration before they can get on the crowded freeway and sit in frustration longer… and I totally blamed the sputtering on that, even though I knew deep down it was something more. It did it again when I was driving home from dinner later that evening and I figured it was probably the spark plugs. I took it in the shop the next morning and the tech was able to get the check engine light to come on and pull the code: spark plugs.

So they replaced them, test drove it, and it ran like a champ… for them. Except the next morning, it sputtered again when I drove it. But I couldn’t get it to duplicate when I took the tech for a drive. Of course not. He told me to try and get the check engine light to come on so they could pull the code. Made sense, rather than chasing some random problem, to try and get a specific diagnostic code. The next day came and it got worse and worse. Stop and go traffic in a sputtering car is a hoot. I finally got the check engine light to come on — yay me! They pulled the code and it said “misfiring.” Well, duh. I could have told them that. Anyway, the saga finally ended (so far) when they replaced one of the ignition wires which was testing with high resistance. They are original equipment to the car, and I guess a car who’s nearly 10 years old does need this kind of maintenance.

Don’t you just love the car talk? Anyway, so I now have my car back, minus some $$ and time and inconveniences to my husband, his dad (we borrowed his car) and myself.

Then, another day this week, I plugged my primary external hard drive into my computer after using it somewhere else. It decided that it needed to run a check disk and, in the course of it, converted several folders to files that are now not accessible. According to what I’ve read, Microsoft just decided that they were going to be lazy and didn’t want to create an unconversion option, and I found an enormous three page step-by-step fix for it, but … really? Fortunately (if there’s a “fortunate” part of it), although it converted quite a few folders, my loss is only about three weeks worth of stuff because I back up my crap on a monthly basis.

Then, the day I left my car in the shop, we all played musical cars. My husband drove his dad’s truck to work and I drove my husband’s car. That morning I took a corner in his car at the speed I would normally take it in my car, but failed to factor in the fact that an SUV drives a bit different than a sports car. As a result, my lunch bag went tumbling top over bottom in the back seat. It wouldn’t normally be an issue, except in the mornings I put my travel mug of coffee in there for the ride so I can savor it when I get to work. I just knew it was dumping all over the inside of the bag. I grabbed it, righted it, and checked. As it turns out, the suction of the heat of the coffee had created a such a strong vacuum that it sealed that mug so tight that only a drip came out.

I thought to myself, “Well, it looks like things are turning around… a bit of luck!”

If you’re looking for it, sometimes the smallest thing or just an hour in time can make all the difference in the world.

Also, I finally used my “coupons” from the deal I bought a couple weeks ago at Whole Foods market. One of the gems I found there were a novelty grape called Holiday grapes. Good heavens, but those things are amazing. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for a special food treat for yourself!

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Filed under Life Encompasses Me

October 2, 2011

Change of Seasons.

In our part of the world, I know fall is coming when Halloween City posts classified ad after classified ad for seasonal help in all surrounding cities. Who knew there were so many Halloween City stores? I didn’t.

Also, my HOA sends out notification that they’ll only be heating one pool in our community until October 31st. This year it’s the “upper” pool, which is good I suppose, since that nasty marijuana smell seems to be an intermittently regular visitor at the “lower” pool. So annoying.

Wonderful spice scented candles make their appearance in the stores, along with weird Autumn figures and freaky Halloween decorations, who stand at the end of aisles and stare vacantly at you as you pass them by.

Also, the days are warm but the nights are crisp and cool. Which always makes me want to bake cookies, but not enough to turn the oven on during the day. Quite a conundrum. So I usually end up mixing up the dough and storing it in the fridge or freezer until it cools off for reals.

During my “modified swimming” this weekend, there have been monarch butterflies fluttering around the upper pool. They are so pretty and I could happily watch them flit about all day, dramatic colors and carefree wind carried whimsies.

Beautiful butterflies, beautiful weather, in the sun swims, desire to create things in my oven — simple things I’m celebrating and giving thanks for tonight.

Praying for the safe travels of those I hold close to me (my husband and mom), on separate road trips, but traveling long journeys.

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Filed under Daily Journeys:, Longbits

September 24, 2011

Quick Update.

After some extensive monitoring and testing and ultrasounds and a visit with the high risk neonatal doctor, I was cleared off of bedrest and authorized to return to work on Friday.

They also cleared us to go to the mountains (with lots of rest breaks, hydration, etc., etc., and knowing where the closest L&D unit is just in case). That’s where we are now (the mountains, not the L&D unit). We had a wonderful morning spent at our favorite breakfast restaurant and a visit to our favorite candy store, I am currently eating a frozen banana and we’re sitting outside of McDonald’s using their WIFI.

We are calling this a Babymoon. ha

Seriously, thank you for all your prayers and your comments encouraging me — meant so much to me… I have a follow up appointment with the high risk doctors next week and we’re praying that all continues to be stable. Baby still has a lot of development to do and we would definitely prefer that he do it inside as opposed to in the NICU.

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Filed under Kid Quest

September 19, 2011

Oh, Bed, How I’ve Missed Thee!

As if my uninterrupted 9 to 10 hour stretches of sleep on the weekend, and the drooling kind of sleep I do on weeknights aren’t enough — yes, pregnant women everywhere hate me for that — I am now assigned to bed rest. Again. 24/7 hours of bed for this week! Hate away, you haters, I have other, for more dramatic pregnancy inconveniences that make up for my Camel Bladder of Steel that allow me those marathon sleep nights.

You may recall I was diagnosed with a low lying placenta? Yes? Why don’t you recall that? Do YOU have pregnancy brain? Why is everyone around me suffering from pregnancy brain? ANYWAY, so when I bled last night and this morning, I consoled myself with, “Oh, it’s just that bothersome low lying placenta…” went to sleep last night, work this morning and called my doctor. That consolation didn’t work so well when they called back in less than two hours and said, “How fast can you get here?” I was glad to learn, so I know you’ll be glad to learn, that the placenta is no longer low lying and has moved up! Far, far away from my cervix. Hooray!

My cervix, apparently feeling lonely from the disappearing placenta, has decided to shorten into a zone that my doctor feels is “not an emergency, don’t freak out, but you’re on bed rest as of now, you’ll need to see a high risk neo-natal specialist, and come in for electronic fetal monitoring.” Basically, it’s way too early for my cervix to be shortening like this.

So, just out of curiosity, I innocently decided to verify what my doctor said and plugged in my cervical length, how pregnant I am and went off to the land of Dr. Google freak-out. Oh, when will I ever learn (oh, oh, let me answer — never?)? STAY AWAY FROM DR. GOOGLE!

I figure most of you guys have been around my blog long enough that I can ask a personal favor of you… so, let’s get REALLY personal, shall we? If you think of it, would you mind sending up a prayer for my cervix?

We (my cervix, Baby, me, and my husband) would greatly appreciate it.

(Off topic: Seriously, doesn’t this kid have the cutest nose ever?)

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Filed under I Worry A lot, Kid Quest

September 16, 2011

Week of Weird.

The weird weather has continued in these parts, with a dramatic thunder and lightning storm on Saturday morning and then sun in the afternoon — as if all the morning weather drama never happened. I had chosen to sleep in that morning, and Tony, who was on his way back from the gym and was quite relieved to see that I wasn’t lap swimming at the time. Since the lightning sounded like it cracked something about 10 feet from our house (I was awake after that, for sure, although we didn’t see anything amiss), I decided it might be best to delay my swim to later that afternoon when the sun came out.

We decided to spend last Saturday morning driving around and running errands together. There are some pretty, tree-lined roads in the back part of our county and the roads curve around each other. Somewhat maddening if you’re used to a grid-like city pattern of roads, but beautiful in a simple way if you’re just out for a drive together on a rainy Saturday morning with your heads stuck out the windows of your car like a pair of oxygen deprived dogs inhaling the fresh smell of just rained on earth!

I’m not a huge follower of things like LivingSocial or Groupon, but occasionally they have a pretty good deal… like super cheap movie tickets and that awesome Amazon deal back in January. I was pretty excited when this week they had a pay $10, get $20 to spend at Whole Foods. There’s a Whole Foods pretty close to my work place (meaning I can zip over there on my lunch hour and be back at work with time to spare), and they do have bins (we all know about my affection for bin food, right?), so I was pretty tickled to get in on that deal. I love when I catch deals for things that I love.

It’s quarterly audit time at work, which means the outside auditors have come in and are sitting in the work spaces near me. As usual, the one closest to me is sick with a cold (or something, it’s always something). She sits over there and complains about how she doesn’t feel well, all the while sneezing, coughing and sniffling her nose. As usual, my immune system holds out for a week and then succumbs. It’s so frustrating to me. I’ve made mention the last two times this happened to my co-worker about this maddening pattern, but this time I made a bit of a bigger deal over it. So, they moved the ill culprit two desks over — which is great! But sadly it was too little, too late. The bug had already started settling into my immune system. I lost some pay this week because I went home sick… the whole thing just frustrates me (in case I haven’t mentioned that, like, 12 times).

This week, in case you didn’t know, there was a full moon. Or a harvest moon, the farmers call it. Or in our house, the Crazy-Ass Cat Week.

Our two alpha cats hate each other all the time, although the one just can’t comprehend the constant hate of the other and is constantly sticking his face in the other one’s face to be sure, or mosies by him, or just gets in his general vicinity when there are other, faster paths to his destination he could take. He always gets swiped or hissed at. So, lately, when he does that, I’ve taken to saying to him, “Slasher, Tug still hates you!” Slasher then looks at me with an aggrieved look on his face and goes on his way. But this week, and all weeks with a full moon, the hate is taken to an all new level with constant late night yowling, growling and feline yodeling. The hate, it’s really quite impressive.

I’m looking forward to the weekend as if it’s a reset button. To my health and to our cats’ sanity. Here’s to a new us next week!

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Filed under Health/Endo, Kid Substitutes, Life Encompasses Me, Money Hump Building