Monday Monday!

OK, so back to Memphis for a brief period of time... Monday we got to spend time playing with Ana and having fun, we cooked lunch (my new favorite stuffed zucchini), and then we hopped in the car to head home.

Ana walked around the back yard with Grandma for a while 

Then she put on her new princess sunglasses and played with sidewalk chalk!

 

And then learned a little about badminton!

 

Then she hopped in the old car and drove around

 

We went inside to eat a mid-morning snack and Ana helped me make miso soup!

Then we made a funky alien headband with pipe cleaners

After that, she lint rolled Uncle Jeremy-- he was much cleaner after that!

Goin' to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis, TN...

This week... it's been long:
-Jeremy got reeeeally sick with a stomach virus this week
-Trying to save my computer from falling in the floor, I smashed the screen
-Discovered Sony's extended warranty plan
-Became $200 cheaper
-Have to figure out how to transfer all my stuff off my hard drive to the external one since the computer is perfectly fine, it's just the screen. Blah.
-I have also consequently fallen behind on CafeWorld. No worries, Donna, I'll get you yet!

Tonight:

We're hanging out watching Food Network with Jeremy's parents and sister, Ana's (ostensibly) in bed, and we had a really fantastic day spending time with our amazing little niece! I know she's got more energy than possibly even Julian, but I would feel so lucky if we ended up with a smart little girl like her. She's got an hilarious little "Oh..." followed by a look when she's disappointed or disgusted by something, and has spent the whole day inquiring about mine and Jeremy's whereabouts whenever we're not in the room. Today we went to the store for snacks, and while playing with my phone, she called Jenny-Lind who called back and got to talk to Ana for a few minutes.

This afternoon, I got her a little necklace and bracelet (since she'd been asking Jan about her bracelet, and trying to take mine that Dill got me in Italy, and since the Christmas present I got for her is waay too big!) from Claire's and she's lost the bracelet, but that's more the fault of her wrist being so darn tiny!

I started to get ahead of Sallie Mae on Jeremy's loan stuff, and looked in to a new hard drive for my computer (external, my computer is fine... except for that whole smashed in screen that happened the other day... thank goodness for extended accidental warranty coverage!), and added a few people to my family tree on Ancestry.com-- there's some pretty cool stuff on there!

Tomorrow should be fun, we're going to chill out most all day and hopefully I'll get some pictures of us with Ana (since my camera is here!!) and then we're going to Bdubs and a hockey game for my birthday! Whee!!

That's about all for now, I'll try to update when we get back from Atlanta!

I am angry AT&T customer, hear me roar!

So I haven't been getting any text messages, and nobody has gotten the ones I've sent, for the last week or so. Finally, today I called AT&T and was like, "WTF, kids?" The following:

Annoying Midwestern Chick: You don't have a texting package, that explains it!
Me: Well, I've been paying for one...
AMC: Oh, it looks like your text messaging package expired on May 19th.
Me: Expired? Not to get smart with you, but was anyone planning on TELLING me this? I mean, nobody bothered to tell me I was off contract, then nobody bothers to tell me that my text package has been yanked?
AMC: Well, no, you're right-- you should have been notified, but it's something you can keep track of online, you know.
Me: But it was still expired and I wasn't notified.
AMC: (hems and haws a few seconds) So, it looks like you took the data plan for your Blackberry off on the same day, so you took off the texting package and the data package at the same time.
Me: Except I didn't ask her to take off the text package-- all I asked for her to take off was the data package.
AMC: I'm terribly sorry about that.
Me: So, you need to put my text package back on.
AMC: I'm so sorry, but I can't do that-- we don't offer that package anymore!

At this point, I asked her where I could file a complaint about a representative making unauthorized changes to my account and she told me I could go to the website under "Contact Us" and there was a complaint section. Yeah, not really. So I get a little bent out of shape about this because, as the girl pointed out, my text plan (200/mo to other carriers, unlimited mobile to mobile) doesn't exist anymore and I don't need 1500 text messages for $15/mo, but I need more than 200 messages a month.

I put on the 200 messages and will use them sparingly, but since I'm off contract I have a little leverage-- I can walk away without any fees. I also went around and looked at other carriers-- Sprint came out on top of AT&T (everything else was more expensive) with a brand new Blackberry (in red!) with unlimited text and data and 450 minutes for $70/mo-- the same thing with AT&T is about $90/mo. Now, Sprint has less coverage, but if they mention that I'll tell them I'm already used to all my calls getting dropped ANYWAY. Kthxbai.

So, wish me luck. I'm going to own them. I hope...

Also, I ran in to my old dance teacher today at the gas station, which I guess means I'm going to *have* to take this class at Callenwalde! I also ran in to Taylor Driskill at Target! I also got some super awesome pitchers at Target that are like the old ones Jan has-- they have a plunger attached to the top so that things get mixed up better and they were on sale cheap so I got two. I'm an even bigger geek-- I'm getting excited about pitchers. Jeremy was happy, too, though, because we do a lot of lemonade and that sort of stuff for which these are perfect! I also picked up a clearance coloring book for Analia (though I might just keep it here since she's still at the doodling stage and I'm sure they've got enough for her to color on)-- it's a WALL-E themed one, which I thought was cute since we got them WALL-E for Christmas this past year!

That's about all for today-- updates tomorrow on who won the big battle with AT&T.

Oh, Brent

Brent randomly sent me a text message just now with the lyrics to "Safety Dance" that old 80's favorite, which is kind of awesome because it was the one "classic" 80's song I didn't hear on my station tonight. And also awesome because it was just kind of funny and random.

I didn't really get anything done on my to-do list, but I did eat a little healthier which is a good start, I think. I made a yummy salad with field greens, baby portabello mushrooms and carrots and instead of eating more Reeses pieces this afternoon, I had a bunch of Quakes, which are the mini rice cakes Quaker makes. I had too many of them, but they're still better for me than chocolate and peanut butter! Tomorrow, I'm going to do oatmeal for breakfast, some of the Morningstar Farms "hot wings" and a small salad for lunch, and maybe some meatloaf for dinner to get some protien and some more veggies with the green beans and mashed taters. I also need to run a few errands, including finally mailing off the stuff for Ana-- last week just got so busy I didn't have a chance, which stinks because it also means I forgot to get Jeremy to sign a late birthday card for Valerie! C'est la vie, I suppose.

Started watching "Lie to Me" tonight, which is a pretty cool show actually. It's about a guy who is, in essence, a human lie detector-- he's a scientist who studies facial expressions and body language to tell if people are lying. Of course I'll admit I like anything that could be considered a crime drama, but the premise is nifty and the cast is great.

Time for tea and sleep, so more later. Ciao!

Hooray shopping!

Went to Target today and bought some really super cute stuff for Analia, I kinda wish some of them were in my size! Apparently there was a run on all the 2T clearance stuff that was there last week, but I still got a pair of cute little twill capris, some dark pink chino-type shorts, a brown and pink tank top, a pink shirt with little gingham trim, and a multi-colored sundress. I'm trying to see if I can upload directly from the camera since I don't have a card reader for a microSD since I have a couple pictures. Aaaaand, it worked!

See, the shirts and the pants match each other and will go with several things she already has and the sundress is just flat out cute.

Also, Meg had her baby today!! Welcome to the world, Vera Kavanaugh, we're so glad you're here! She picked a beautiful day to come-- 65 and sunny, like the world was expecting her. :D

Well, here's to hoping we get a commercial break soon or I'm going to be watching Burn Notice at 1a and mom's going to be mad at me for not helping move David's stuff out; in my defense, I did help out for like 20 minutes last night without being asked and this is the only show I insist on watching at its normal time because I know that there are people who will spoil it. Also, as I have just found out, David and my brother are both type A enough that they don't want someone else getting in the way!

Did my tax return last night, so now I'm just waiting for it all to come back-- I'm being responsible AND having fun; half will go to pay off a credit card and the other half will go towards a ticket to Austin this summer. I can't wait!!

<3 Burn Notice!!

Cylon Attack!

I'm catching up on all my shows now, and first on the list is Battlestar Galactica! I've missed a lot, so I'm starting at Season 3 and moving through it all. I'm not used to watching it on Friday nights, so I'll probably end up doing what I'm doing now and catching it all on DVD if the SciFi channel doesn't keep them up long enough. It's really intense so far, which isn't surprising because that's what BSG does, but I'd forgotten how good they are at it!

I'm a couple episodes away from being caught up on NUMB3RS, all caught up on House and 30 Rock and The Office, next up is Fringe and CSI. Yes, my life really is that boring...

Going to Borders tomorrow to spend the last of my Borders gift card from Valerie and Matt on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack (which I was pleased to see had all the songs I wanted on it) and then swing by Target to pick up a few things for Analia. They're having some seriously awesome clearance on the stuff from last summer, so I get to fill in the blanks for next to nothing! Wheee! I need to remember to take the blankets by Hagar's House (a women's shelter in downtown Decatur) because I totally forgot today.

Jeremy's going to be able to come up next week, and we'll probably have lunch or dinner with my godmother Gail (who's doing the wedding service) and her husband Tom, and he's going to replace the exhaust manifold on my car so it'll be shiny and new and I won't have to worry about it cracking any further. I had a decent night at work and since I've done a good job at not spending too much this month, I can afford a new one which is only $150 for shipping and gaskets and everything! Yay for having a cheap car to fix!! After that, I can pass emissions and my car will be legal and I can start visiting Florida and even make a trip or two to Memphis to see people and hit up a couple hockey games.

Oh, fun story, the problem I was having with the Mass Air Flow Sensor? Turns out the shop unplugged it when they were looking for electrical problems and never plugged it back in! It was a five minute fix once Jeremy got here and now it's running wonderfully. It's certainly nice having a handy fiancee!

I think that's all the interesting stuff for now, so I'll sign off. Ciao for now!

I just realized what time it was...

I got on to add more info to my tax forms on H&R Block and... Sarah just got on Facebook and Josh put up pictures and Suehyla tagged me in a meme and Tati hadn't heard I was engaged and Krystal told me about her hideous china and Brian's computer spazzed... it was more than I expected. So, after all that, and eating my mac and cheese leftovers (which were supposed to be lunch tomorrow), I realized that not only had I NOT put in my tax info, BUT it was also almost 230 in the morning... wow.

The weekend was good-- I bought my dress (for $100!) and since it fits perfectly, I won't have to even have it altered! The "spa day" ended up being the afternoon from hell and we were preached at that Mary Kay allowed them to not be working mothers who left their children in (god forbid!) daycare of all the evil places. I thought my mother was going to jump across the table and throttle the over-made little twit and her "top-of-the-line" minivan. Oh, well, it was amusing and kind of fun to be there with Em, Laura, and mom, AND if I hadn't decided to go, then I wouldn't have gotten my last one in the store dress! I'm really REALLY excited about the dress-- it's pretty and it looks fantastic on!

I should probably go to bed now, but I thought I'd drop a note here right quick and check Val's blog, for which I was rewarded-- Analia is just so frickin' cute I can't get over it! I'm hoping that by Valentine's Day (which is Valerie's birthday, too!) Jeremy and I will both have webcams and be set up on Skype. That's my present to him, and then I'll get one for myself as well.

Ah, well, off to rest up for the big move! I'm so excited I get my own space now!

First of the Year

Happy New Year everyone! My favorite holiday next to Halloween, where we can spend our time with loved ones and celebrate a fresh start. Check out the links, they're pictures of and by me in Florida; the ones of the manatees at Blue Springs came out great!

Christmas Eve- flew down to Jacksonville where Jeremy picked me up. We took the long way back down to Daytona, stopped at a beach and took a stroll, and drove through St. Augustine before we got home. Relaxed for a little bit with the History Channel and ordered some Papa Johns for dinner. I'd brought down stuff for mulled wine so we cooked some of that up and had a glass (which helped with Jeremy's coughing nast) and wished everyone in Indiana a Merry Christmas on the phone.

Christmas Day- got up earlyish, put up the pictures I had printed for Jeremy and turned on the tree I bought. I started on a pot roast with onions and potatoes, which turned out fantastically. We ate on that for dinner, and watched a movie but I can't remember which one-- we watched about five or six the whole time.

Up Through New Years Eve- We also caught up with the Eiler's Christmas slideshow-- Analia just keeps getting more and more adorable! If they didn't live in Singapore I would offer long-term babysitting for free, she's got such a great personality for such a little girl. Went to the Bulow Sugar Mill and wandered around, it was a really cool place-- once the biggest Sugar Mill in the area that shipped out to St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Savannah. On the way back we wandered around part of the loop and stopped to take pictures of the pretty bird. We went to lunch with Jeremy's classmate Ron and his wife Cathy the next day, really nice people and very funny. Ron and Jeremy have the same sense of humor-- no wonder they get on so well! Walked around the little shopping complex in front of Wyotech and then went for a ride around the loop. The next day we rode down to Waleka with them and went out to the dock and watched the water for a few minutes. It was so much fun to be back on the bike again, and now that I'm not stressing my joints at work it doesn't hurt to ride for more than half an hour! Stopped at a great little country restaurant called MeMa's where we had corn nuggets (which were amazing!) and I got a shrimp basket for $7 with 1/3lb of fresh shrimp in it! Yum!

We laid low over the next couple days, made a couple grocery store runs, talked wedding stuff, and planned for the next week. We went down to Blue Springs State Park where the manatees were to see what we could see and... there were manatees galore!! We got to see a mama and calf, and several others hanging out throughout the naturally warm springs. We're definitely going to go back this summer when the manatees are gone so that we can swim and maybe find a place to get tubes and tube up to the St. John's river. We got home to find that the USPS had put a "Vacant House" card in the mailbox because I'd put a letter for one of the old residents in marked "No Such Resident, Return to Sender" so even though they've been delivering mail for months for the people who DID live there, they decided they were just going to stop.

New Year's Eve- we just kind of hung out for most of the day, watched some silly TV and played some Wii (though I also just watched Jeremy get angry with the Wii tennis-- way amusing), drank our champagne and watched a movie on Netflix. At midnight, we cheered, kissed, and said, "Well, I guess we're getting married this year, huh?" Went to bed not too much later after that so I could get up the next day and cook!

New Year's Day- Cooked up a good ol' meal of collard greens, black eyed peas, and corned beef. I forgot to get cornmeal, so we didn't have cornbread, but the greens and peas were the important part. We ate plenty, so we ought to have plenty of luck and prosperity this year; I'm not usually superstitious, but I take my New Years seriously! Besides, we could both use a bit of each! Watched another movie, I think the one about Genghis Khan, and discussed how silly the USPS is. Jeremy did get it straightened out, so no worries on the mail.

Jan. 2nd- We decided to go up to St. Augustine because everyone said it was super cute and charming, and I wanted to see all the historical stuff... BIG mistake. Unless you're ready to fork out $25/person just for parking and historical stuff, not including food or even water, don't even step foot in St. Augustine. Drive through, ooh and aah at the cute buildings, and then drive right on out. The parking was hard to find and expensive, all the historical stuff charged, we couldn't find a coherent map to figure out where we were so we just wandered around for a couple hours, and since the whole city seemed out to pick our pockets, we didn't feel like stopping for food. Plus, the few historical items seemed crowded out by the kitschy tourist stuff. Totally awful. We left in a half-bad mood and didn't really feel like doing anything else-- we skipped Ft. Matanzas and came straight back to Daytona where we had leftovers for dinner.

We didn't do too much exciting over the last few days, attempted Outback and was overwhelmed by the number of people and lack of space (they never seem to have enough tables!) so we got takeout, leaving Jeremy with even more leftovers to eat on for the next week and a half! I got to meet one of his roommates, Jeff, who seemed like a really cool, laid-back guy and his girlfriend Natalie who reminded me of someone I used to work with. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing time and that's exactly the kind of time we like :)

Now, I'm working hard to save for the wedding-- we know what we want, or rather I do, so I'm pretty intent on paying for it myself and not having to depend on outside help for it. My mom said she might help with the deposit for the venue, but since we get that money back (and she likes my plan) it won't be a big deal. I'm really excited about the prospects, and I'll keep everyone updated as I get ideas. It's going to be really creative, really nice, and very classic. Yes, it's possible!

Anyway, off to bed-- I'm already ruining the fairly decent sleep habits Jeremy got me in to this week. No cold water, but he's not big on letting me sleep in; which, to be fair, I asked him to enforce. We're also moving soon, which is exciting, so I'm up early to try and start packing up!

Blurgh

Prayers said, fingers crossed, lucky rabbit's feet rubbed and all that jazz...

I had an interview last night (good lord have mercy, is it really nearly 3?! I need to be careful about this finishing a book in one day deal...) at a restaurant called Palate. It's really cute, kinda trendy-- very Decatur. The owner was really sweet, she liked my experience and my ability to take care of the place on my own. There were, I think, two other people to speak with and she'll e-mail us today. Do all of the above and anything else you can think of for me because I would love to work at this place. It's close by, I'd make at least $100 a week with the option to pick up shifts, and it would mean I could get the time off to see Jeremy at Christmas and New Year's which is all I want right now.

I miss Jeremy so much, and it hasn't been that long since I last saw him... the next eight months are going to be rough. Hopefully, though, with a job I can afford to go down there once a month after this and my Christmas/birthday present is to be a ticket down there. It will be nice, even though not as cold in Florida as Mississippi, to cuddle up and watch movies like we did last year. We've chided everyone for starting Christmas before Thanksgiving this year, and here I am talking about it! I blame Valerie for putting up adorable Christmas decorating photos of little Ana. For anyone who doesn't know who Ana is (who are you, where have you been, and do you really ever talk to me?), she's the best little (un)niece I could ever hope to have and just about the cutest little girl I've ever met (and yes, I've seen my share-- goooooo daycare workers!).

They put up her Christmas tree this weekend and she got to wander around with garland on her. I really miss working at the daycare sometimes-- kids can wear on your nerves, but the moment they make you smile it's all forgivable. Just remind me I still need to wait a few years before really wanting one of my own! At least to the point of being able to afford one... though maybe I'll have a girl and snag some hand me downs! ;)

I suppose I should go to bed now. I've ended my election commentary on my other blog, so tomorrow I'll go back to reviewing literature and movies like a good little elitist and included will be Philippa Gregory's novels The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool, both about the Tudor reign in to the rise of Queen Elizabeth I. I gotta tell you, those Tudors were frickin' nutters. Not just the flip flopping of religions, but Henry VIII bedded like half the Howard/Boleyn family, and after beheading the one Boleyn girl (Anne), he went off and relieved another of her caput (Catherine Howard)! I think the only reason Catherine Pharr survived the Queenship was because she happened to outlive him... And they say Americans are debauched...

Anyway, save it for the reviews. Hopefully in the next 12 hours I'll have a celebratory post up, but I'll try not to jinx myself...

Walls of Jericho

Wrapped up Season 1 of Jericho a while ago, which was really intensely awesome. Jericho is about a little town in Kansas that survives the nuclear bombing of 23 US cities and is completely cut off from the world-- by the way, this isn't international terror, it's domestic. They spend six months trying to hold up, keep fed, and find out what happened until a new government is built and the military comes through to take everything over and rebuild the country. The next town over, New Bern where a munitions plant is, starts a war with Jericho over food. Second season is all about reconstruction, just started on CBS I think this year.

A lot of people are saying that the way to do things now would be to wipe out debt, let everyone start over from zero, and I think that Jericho is an extreme example of why that wouldn't be a great idea. What happens? The guys with guns take over everything.

Anyway, I got a little bit of picking up done and redid the palate on my bed. It would appear that there was kind of a box spring sort of deal at the bottom over the support slats and it was so worn down that the slats in the box spring dealie were sticking up. I flipped it over, and so now there's something going down the middle of the bed, but I have one of those old gym-type mats and a slice of the bumpy foam that goes right down the middle, so it isn't too bad and the rest of the bed is MUCH more comfortable now. I also found out that the extralong sheets that I had in the dorm, which I almost gave to the sal army, fit the futon with a little room which makes it easy to keep all the padding on the futon.

I don't feel too much like cooking this week, so I'm just laying low. It's been drizzling all day and cooling off, so I've been feeling less inclined to take a walk. It'll warm back up by midweek and I'll try to make the best of it then, including finally fixing the exhaust leak.

Valerie put up more pictures of Analia, who's getting so big and walking on her own now! I wish Jeremy and I could have gotten out there to see them when we were still working for the airlines. Singapore's a couple few stone's throw away!

I also still haven't found a job, which is getting more and more stressful. I know I'm one of 6,000 people who are all perfectly qualified to do one job or another and can't get even the ones they're overqualified for, but... man. It's kinda nervewracking. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, so say a prayer and send me happy thoughts-- I need everything I can get! Jeremy's taking about buying me a plane ticket down there, and you can actually get a great deal with Expedia with that flexible travel dates thing. If I fly in to Orlando, Wednesday to Wednesday, I can get a ticket for like $169! That's only about $30 more than the gas money to get to Daytona Beach. Not too shabby, really. Plus, if I get in early that morning, I could take a bus or taxi in to town and see Prof. Newman for lunch which would be fantastic! We'll see. I hate for him to spend more money than he needs, but I guess it's just as unfair for him to not see me as it is for me not to see him.

That's it for now, possibly more tomorrow.

I'm Alpha born, I'm Alpha bred...

I'm sitting around today doing not much other than AOII stuff. Maybe it's dorky, but I do love my sorority very much and would do anything for my girls! So this time around, since I can't help out in house, I'm doing up some goodies. I'm making CDs for bid day bags, cookies for the girls post-philanthropy tomorrow night, and doing up the poem for Caroline's jersey. Wheeee! AOII Makes me Happy! I even did my whole AOII family tree, which is ENORMOUS by now and getting bigger all the time... I can't get the thing to upload properly, so I'll just post it in a few minutes.

In other news, I saw my grandfather this weekend. He's doing well enough, all things considered, just really really tired. I'm heartened by his spirit-- I didn't think it would wane, but seeing him insisting on doing all the things he normally does (or at least trying) is good to see. I also got to see my Uncle James, who is I think 93, and Uncle Hubert-- or was it Hershel? Geez, who knows. I think it was Hershel.

I was supposed to get much more done today than I actually did, like packing and cleaning, but I don't suppose it's any different from any other time I've thrown it all together quickly quickly. Tomorrow morning, we're leaving to head up to Indiana for the MotoGP race this weekend, about which I'm really excited. We're taking my car since Jeremy's is really loud, not that the Toyota is much better. Now that the panda is working again, I'm itching to drive that one instead. If I'd thought about it, I would have seen about renting one from Enterprise since they do a really great weekend rate. Maybe I still can... who knows.

Talked to Valerie and Analia tonight, all the way from Singapore. I feel so bad for poor Ana, she's a year old next week and teething in a part of the world not known for being cool. She does, however, still absolutely adore her Uncle Jeremy-- he came in and made faces at her for a minute or two and she smiled (and kinda looked a little stoned) and smiled for the first time in the half hour we'd had her on Skype, then he left and she got her serious look, and the second he came back in to view she just started grinnin' and laughing all over again! He's the magic trick when it comes to her, maybe I should just get a good picture of him being goofy and send it over!

Anyway, back to burning CDs, hitting Jeremy with a book, and packing for IN.

Ciao.