Windy tonight

some of the windows are rattling in their frames...which is kind of spooky after watching a few halloween shows.

Fall

I hate when it's dark when I leave work.  Makes me tireder.  Probably all in my head, but it shouldn't be night when I go home.

Weird Weather

It's almost the end of October, and the air conditioner is running.  A few years ago, we had tons of snow on the ground by this point.

Home again

Now we're home.  Now it's time to get cracking and get some housework done.

Right after we catch up on tv watching.

Road Trip

"We" decided to take along weekend to head to Indiana to visit her family.  I'll go to my sister in law's Halloween thing, but I don't think I'm going to go to the baby shower :)

I know it's been a while

Not living much of an exciting life, really.

I can tell you this.. I am so ready to retire.

Whew

The week is over. A stressful one at work.  Now I can relax a bit.

Bah

Got an email tonight that the genealogy program I use is going to end development and support at the end of the year.

Now I have to find a new one, and transfer the data.

Bah.

Yardwork

Once upon a time, when we moved here, we thought we could keep up on yardwork.  15 years later...not so much.  I spent a little time after work cutting down saplings behind the garage in the alley, replaced the backyard floodlights (they both burnt out at the same time), but I still have so much more to do, and so little time after work, when it's not a gazillion degrees outside.

Next house we get is either going to be a townhome/condo, or we're getting a gardener.

Ugh

After an extremely stressful and long week this week at work, it was rather nice to spend the day today not doing anything.  I played LOTRO almost all day, watched a lot of tv (mostly at the same time), and that was it.  Tomorrow we'll have to go get groceries and do laundry, but today was truly a nothing day.

Got the car done

Fortunately I had some coupons!  They didn't find the problem with the warning light, so I'll just deal with it coming on and off until it stays on all the time.

Other than a quick stop at the comic book store and Barnes and Noble, that was pretty much my whole friday.  I need to run in to work today to get my laptop and do a little work, but before that I'm going to cut down a few saplings while it's still relatively cool and listen to my new Weird Al cd :)

One of these days...

...I'll actually have energy to do some of the stuff I need to do around the house.  Maybe this weekend.  Friday I have to take the car in for it's checkup, and it's supposed to be pretty warm, so I may not do some of the yardwork that needs to be done.

Maybe I'll find a handyman and have them do everything.  Easier on the knees at least, if not the pocketbook.

50K

I can't believe my car has 50,000 miles on it.  Happened sometime in the past couple days.  Doesn't seem like it's that old - must be all the driving cross country we've been doing :)

July 4 weekend

A nice long weekend.  Friday, we did nothing. laid around the house all day.  I did a little laundry, but not much.  Saturday, I started test driving a new gaming computer, after we went to the movies.  I had to go buy a new monitor to dedicate to it, and then Sunday I had to go back to the computer store and get a switch to alternate my keyboard and mouse between the old and new computers.  I also spent a good part of the day with a nasty headache, and knee ache and back ache.  The last two were probably from moving the new computer around (it weighs about a million pounds) and crawling around under the desk hooking it up.

It was otherwise a quiet weekend.  I like these weekends.  Tomorrow promises to be a busy day at work though - hopefully I can get through it with all my hurting muscles.

Normal, more or less

Now that the wife is home from visiting her mom in the hospital, and now that her mom is home and presumably resting comfortably, things should return to normal around here.  I hope to get a little more housework done, maybe even some yardwork this week if it's not raining too much.

At least this week has a holiday in it!

Jury Duty Day 4

Didn't have to go in, so I spent the day at work.  Not very many meetings, so I got some work done, and caught up on emails.

After I got home, I caught up on some of my shows and played a little games.  I don't have to report at all tomorrow, so hopefully another productive day at work.

Jury Duty Day 3

Another half day of sitting and waiting.  After not being selected again, I worked from home. Again.

Tomorrow I don't have to report, so I can work the whole date at work.

Jury Duty Day 2

Today, all I did was sit in the waiting room till noon, and then I was dismissed.  So, I worked from home in the afternoon.

Wonder if tomorrow will be the same?

Jury Duty Day 1

Spent the entire day being asked a ton of questions about whether I was an acceptable juror for this trial.Turns out there were better ones, I guess, because I was dismissed.  I do have to report again tomorrow to see if another trial wants me!

A/C

Wish this thing would just work.  Have to have a tech come out and figure out why it's not putting out any cold air.  The house is 20 degrees warmer inside than out.

Stormy Saturday

After a week full of meetings, it was kind of nice to stay home today.  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well last night, as it was too hot in the house.  If finally cooled off around 2 or so, so I could get some sleep.  I spent a lot of time cleaning up, putting stuff away, getting ready for our visitors this weekend.

While I was cleaning, I watched Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers on Bluray.  It has been raining all afternoon and evening, so it just seemed appropriate to stay in and do housework.

Day Five

The trip home.  We got up at a decent time, packed the car and checked out.  We first went to Wall Drug, but we didn't stop there for long as we had been there before, and nothing much had changed.  Then we took a detour through the badlands.  Very impressive scenery - even caught some mountain goats foraging.  We spent probably an hour and a half driving through and taking pictures and video and just checking it out.  We didn't stay out of the car very long, because it was getting pretty warm - close to 90.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful.  Tomorrow it's back to work, and see what excitement happened while I was gone.

Day Four

We slept in today - both of us were really tired.  We went into Rapid City for breakfast at I-Hop at noon.  (It's a vacation, we're allowed) :)

After that we decided to take a drive and we went to the geographic center of the US - well, the marker.  The actual center is out in the middle of somebody's farm or ranch.

We came back to town, watched a couple of gunfight reenactments, had dinner, and came back to pack and get ready for the trip home.

One more day!

Day Three

Today we drove over to the Crazy Horse Monument.  We got there and were going to take the bus to the base, to get a close up view, but the busses were grounded due to incoming bad weather.  However, we at least got to see the visitor video, and we got to see the monument itself.

During the rain/hail storm, we had lunch at the restaurant at the visitor center.  After most of the storm had passed, we came back to Deadwood.  We saw quite a bit of fog, and we felt glad we didn't have a repeat of our last visit here.

When we got back, I took a nap for a while, and she went and gambled downstairs.  When she got done losing money, we went for a walk, did a little more gambling (I just read my book), then we went to the Oyster Bay restaurant (although it was more bar than anything), and then had a little ice cream at a shop down the street.

We came back to the room and just relaxed.  I watched Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, and played on the computer while she read a little bit and then went to bed.

These are the best kinds of vacations - no plans :)

Day Two

After breakfast today, we took a bus tour around Deadwood and up to the cemetery. The tour guide was pretty funny, and really got into his bad jokes.  The nice thing about the bus ride is that it took us into the cemetery.  If we didn't do that, we would have had to walk.

After we got back, we headed to Devil's Tower.  It was a pretty uneventful ride out there, only about an hour and a half.  We took several pictures and some video, but decided not to do the mile and half walk around it.  We had lunch at a little store just outside the park entrance.

On the way back, we took the scenic cutoff, and saw some falls and some nice scenery.  Then we headed to the Gem Steakhouse and had a nice dinner. We gambled a little more after dinner, and again, I won more than I started with.  She didn't though.

We also stopped by the Celebrity Hotel, which has a lot of movie props and stuff - including Marty's radiation suit from Back to the Future!

Day One

We had breakfast at the hotel (it's free as part of the cost of the room), then we took a short walk up the street, and bought a couple of hats, since I couldn't find my cap before we left.  Then we drove to Mount Rushmore - which is quite a ways up winding mountain roads from Deadwood.  We spent a while there, taking pictures, and we had lunch.  Afterwards we drove to Bear Country, and drove through an enclave of different animals, including elk, deer, mountain goats, and lots of bears.  The drive through took a little bit of time, because the speed limit was 10 mph, and we were in a long train of cars stopping for photos every time there was an animal :)

We drove back to Rapid City, and stopped to pick up a few more pieces of clothing (like another pair of jeans for me). We came back to Deadwood, walked across the street to a steakhouse and had dinner.  We gambled a little after dinner (the whole town is full of casinos), and I actually came away with more money than I started for a change. 

Then we made it back to the room and called it a night.

Vacation

So ready for it.  When I got home, I changed my eBay password, but I had to call them to do it because the system was a little overloaded.

I paid up on a few bills so I don't have to stress about that while we're gone. I got gas at lunch time. We did one final load of laundry, and I packed my suitcase with everything I could.  Charged up the camcorder.  We'll probably use our phones for photos instead of the camera - one less piece to lug around.

I know everything will be waiting for me, probably piled up, when I get back, but for the next 6 days, I'm not going to worry about it.

Weekend

Saturday we slept in, till almost noon.  That was because I had stayed up Friday night and watched Iron Man on BluRay.  When we got around to moving we went to the comic book convention at the fairgrounds where I found a few rare comics, and she bought a new one about vampires.  Today I went to work in the morning for about 6 hours.  I had some things that had to be done before end of day tomorrow and I'm in meetings all day. again.  After I got home, we went to MOA, which we haven't done in quite a while.  We went to Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, and Lane Bryant.  We had a late lunch at Long John Silver's, then came home.  I watched some episodes of Iron Chef America that TiVo recorded for me, and she napped on the couch until bed time.  I played some DDO and some LOTRO.  I did put our mail on hold for this weekend's vacation - it's hard to imagine it's already here. 

It just better not be foggy when we get to Mount Rushmore again!

Wednesday

Saw the sun for a little bit today - still was inside most of the day.  We had takeout chinese for dinner, because we were both tired.  We watched a couple shows, but called it an early night.  I played Eve for a little, watched an episode of chopped, and that was it.  Tomorrow is full of meetings again.  I barely have any time to do any actual work, although I guess these meetings are part of the 'work' that I do.  It just gets old after a while.

Another Long Day

I'm not really built for these 10 hour days anymore.  Feels like I get home, have a little dinner and it's time for bed.  At least next week we're taking a real vacation, even if it's only 5 days.  That'll give me a chance to rest up.

I hope.

Monday

and a rainy day.  Not exactly the best start to the week.  Work was everything I thought it would be. Tomorrow isn't going to be much better.

Did catch up on one show tonight, only a bunch more to go.

We were talking about the movies tomorrow, but if I'm still tired and blah, we may not.  We'll see.

Home

Spent the day being just lazy.  Caught up on my shows that recorded while we were out, although there's still some on the main dvr to watch.  Otherwise I just played on the computer and tried to sort pictures.  It's really slow, probably because one folder had over 100,000 pictures in it.  I can't complain too much. I did it to myself by changing a setting I shouldn't have.

Tomorrow I get to pick up our mail, go back to work, and fill out a form to report for Jury duty.  Work is not something I'm looking forward to.  I took a peek at the emails that came in while I was gone.  I have been double and triple booked for quite a few times.  It's going to take some effort to sort it all out.

Rain and Snow

I thought I was done with snow.  It snowed on and off all day today.  At least I don't have to shovel it, but still!

Went and saw Divergent after work tonight.  It was a pretty good movie, and I've been told it followed the book pretty well.  It'll be interesting to see if they make any sequels.

A Dark and Stormy Night

Windows rattling in their frames, rain pounding against the house.  Glad I'm inside tonight.

(and that I didn't have to go out for lunch - since we had a meeting that ran over the lunch hour, my boss bought lunch for us.

Doubt that'll happen tomorrow, tho!

Rain

It's supposed to stop raining tonight.  I certainly hope so.  It's been raining for two days now.

Learned that some of T's relatives will be coming up for about a week soon, so maybe that'll give her the drive to finish cleaning the house :)

Easter

Did dishes, played some Dungeons and Dragons Online, watched some TV.  We had pork chops, stuffing, and peas for dinner.  Had to turn on the air conditioner today too.  Got to almost 80 in the house.  Wonder if this is going to be a short spring!

Going outside

It was nice to get outside today, even though it rained on and off. We went to the bookstore, supper at applebee's and then some grocery shopping.  I was able to drive with the window down, and get some fresh non-freezing air for a change.

After shopping, I played on the computer and watched Chopped and Iron Chef America until bedtime.  Tomorrow will be dishes, laundry, and maybe a little computer gaming.

Movies

Made it to the movies tonight - saw Captain America 2.  We liked it and stayed for all the endings.  It was a pretty long movie, too, so that took up almost all of our night.

Tomorrow we're supposed to get rain/snow, so we'll probably come straight home after work.

Expensive Week!

So far, I bought tickets to a concert in July, made reservations for our anniversary trip to Deadwood (and surrounding areas), paid for some of T's surgeries, bought a couple dvd's and a couple of books, scheduled lawn service, including fertilizing sessions..whew.

And of course, it's gotten colder outside again - at least it's not raining or snowing - so I can't really hang out and can do much yard work yet.  Guess I'll have to work more on cleaning up the house...

Finally Spring

It was warm today, even after we got off of work.  There's still snow on the ground, on the north sides of buildings, but we're getting there.

Hopefully, we'll be able to visit the movies this weekend.  We couldn't go the other night to our normal theater because they've started reserve seating, and pre-purchasing, so there was almost nothing left to buy, at over an hour before showtime.  I think we'll go to another theater.

Busy

Now that I'm not a slug with a cold, I'm actually getting a bit accomplished.  Yesterday I finished all the dishes, replaced the floodlights on the back of the house and the garage, and activated a new garage door opener.  Today I jump started the car and drove it around the block (hope the charge holds tomorrow!), and filed our federal and state taxes.  Also did a little genealogy for the wife tonight, and found what I think is a connection to another generation back...and her family line might be German, not English.

Supposed to get cold tomorrow, so I may not want to do much, but at least I'm over my cold, and I can start doing things again!

Great

My car sat too long.  Now I have to figure out how to jump start it, or else get it towed to the dealer.

Did do a little shopping for a hotel to stay at for our anniversary trip to Deadwood.  Prices are crazy.

First day of Spring?

You couldn't tell it from looking outside.  We got about 2 inches of snow last night, and there's still a good 6-8 inches in the backyard.  And it's not supposed to get above 30 this weekend.

Not feeling very spring-like!

Pretty amazing...

5 months to get all that snow, and 5 days to get rid of almost all of it.

Too bad I'm at work during the day when it's so nice.  Ah well.

Light and warm

We had sunshine and it made it into the 40's today.  Yay!

I got myself a new laptop today, so I spent most of the evening registering this, and installing that.  Probably take a week to download/install some of the stuff I had on the old one, but the new one is so much better.  I'll actually be able to play some of my games at a setting other than 'boy, that looks like crap'.

Took the Element in to the dealer yesterday, as we thought it was having some problems.  The washer fluid wouldn't spray, the tires are a bit out of balance.  The sprayer started working for the technician (of course), and all we really need are new tires sometime in the next month, so an hour at the dealer cost us nothing.  Pretty rare that I can say that!

Monday

Even though I had to stay home sick, I managed to do most of the dishes and a load of laundry, as well as catch up on my shows that she doesn't watch, and I lucked out in that 3 of my 4 meetings were cancelled, so I could spend most of the rest of the day either watching tv or napping.

I doubt I'll ever be going to the brunch buffet ever again.  Twice I'e been. Twice I've been sick.

Hopefully tomorrow won't be a paniky day, trying to catch up on what I missed today.

It's still cold

Which right now is a good thing, since our wiper fluid pump is burnt out.  Since it's so cold, there's no spray up on the windshield.  I'm sure that will change eventually.  Hopefully our visit to the dealer this coming saturday will come before the thaw does.

The concert was fun.  The casino was annoying.  What's the point of having a non-smoking section that only has a couple dozen machines?

I'm over winter.

Really, the snow.

Next year, we're getting a service.  End of story.  I'll give up something, a dvd or something, so that we can afford it.

Tired

Even though I'm going to bed earlier to compensate for getting up early, I'm still not getting the rest I need.  Having weird dreams during the night doesn't help.

I'm hoping the three day weekend can help me rest up.

Chores

Got most of the laundry done yesterday, but none of the dishes.  So that was the first thing I did when we got home from work - half the dishes done.

I'd love to have a dishwasher, but we have no space to put one in, or even any space for a portable one.  so, it's all done by hand.

Which is a pain in the...lower back.

But we do what we have to. When we win the powerball, then we'll build a house with a nice fancy dishwasher :)

Saturday

Today was a rather quiet day.  I played LOTRO a good portion of the day.  We did go out and get some groceries this afternoon, and some lottery tickets (247 million is nothing to sneeze at), but other than that, I either played on the main computer or on the laptop while we watched tv.

Tomorrow, tho, I have several loads of laundry to do, and some dishes to wash, so it probably won't be as lazy feeling as today was :)

Stitches

Stitches came out of her other hand today.  Now the countdown to my driving myself to work begins :)  And she can start getting back to normal.

Whatever 'normal' is.

Pizza

Papa John's is better than Pizza Hut.  But when the PJ's nearest you closes, you go with second best.

Especially since you just spent an hour clearing the 4-5 inches (and 13 in drifts!) of snow.

I'm just sayin.  I ache in a lot of places, but at least it's done!

More snow?

Oi.  I'm seriously tired of this seemingly endless winter.

And it's not even February yet.

Coldest Day Yet

managed to muddle through, tho. One more day and we actually go above zero.  When it's cold like this we have absolutely no energy to do anything.  have a little dinner, watch a little tv, and burrow under the blankets in the bed.  Even the new furnace has a hard time keeping up because the house is so drafty.

Cold, warm, cold... make up your mind!

today's high -5.  Tomorrow' high, 30.  Saturday, 10.

It's going to be a long 6 weeks taking care of T, as well.  I can't imagine not being able to use my hands..

Cold again

Really?  I'm getting tired of this.  It's warm enough inside, but having to go out to get in the car to go to and from work is just... ugh.

Plus, this going to work before the sun gets up isn't helping...

Yay Snow!

Not.

Used the snowblower this morning, as there was no way i was going to manually shovel that.

Now I get to spend the rest of the day recuperating, unless we go out and do a little shopping.  Better be short, tho, because that took a lot out of my knee.

Tired

Can't wait to get back on my normal sleeping schedule.  Unfortunately, that won't be till sometime next month, since I have to drive her to work everyday, which means I have to get extra early.

That's a problem for a non-morning person :)

Back to bed

Sleeping in my own bed, even a part of it, is so much better than the pullout.

I had a very productive day at work for a change, didn't finish anything but made good progress on several things I'm working on.

Supposed to snow 1-3 tonight.  Hopefully it will be fluffy like they predict, so I won't hurt myself too much shoveling it.

Sleeping on the couch isn't fun

Last night I didn't want to mess with pulling out the sleeper, so I just 'slept' on the sofa.  It's long enough, but not side enough, and it's hard, so needless to say I didn't sleep much or well.

Which made the day go long at work.  And I had an annoying day as well.  I think I'm getting to that point in my life where change is harder and harder to handle.  Which probably means I'm in the wrong job.

Well, tonight, at least, I'm pulling out the sleeper, so I can at least get a little more comfortable.  I'm looking forward to the point where she doesn't need the whole bed to prop her arm up, and I can sleep in the bed again.  Sadly, that's probably not till mid-February.

Still here

not completely frozen, though it was close there this weekend.  ugh.

Supposed to be downright balmy this weekend, in the upper 30s!  Have to go shopping for a new remote - our multi unit one just stopped working.  thought it was the batteries, but no.  it's just dead.  of course, we've had it for over 10 years, so it's probably time anyway.

brrr

other than a few minutes Saturday to shovel, I spent the entire weekend in the house.  I'm working from home tomorrow as well.  It's just too cold to go out and do anything.

T has to go to work though - I'm glad it's her and not me.  I can (and will) work from home.  Have to go in Tuesday tho - I get to sit in on an interview for a new hire.  His resume is a bit all over the place, so we'll see how he interviews.  Tuesday night is concert night - P!nk.  And since it's still supposed to be cold, not sure how well that work out.

2014

A new year.  No resolutions for me, though.  Other than a goal. This year will be the 'year of the house'.  get it fixed up, cleaned up, decluttered

Once it warms up.  it's too dang cold to do much right now!