So, I am now just two years away from the big 3-0. I feel old, like so much of my life has just vanished before my eyes, when I think about it that way. But at the same time, I don’t actually feel old. And although I’m not where I would have liked to be in my life, I’m not particularly upset over it. Oh sure, things could be better. They could also be worse too.

So my birthday has come and gone as has Valentine’s Day and am I ever so glad about that. Really, I am. I like nice floral arrangements about as much as any other gal out there. Well, maybe a little less, but getting showered with them every February (and chocolates too) gets old. Seriously, my birthday is February 12 and two days later is Valentine’s and all throughout my life folks have believed that getting me Valentine’s themed stuff for my birthday or combining the two holidays together is a good when it comes to gifts for my birthday.

I got a couple of boxes of assorted chocolates (both big and small), and five different bouquets for my birthday. Not including other V-day stuff like teddy bears, things decorated in hearts, and so on and so forth.

I personally liked the dark red Dahlia bouquet I got the best, the roses and carnation ones were…not original since I see stuff like that every year. The Dahlia one though was new and very pretty.

It’s time for another round of “Good News and Bad News” here. Yes, the blessings really are that mixed. First, some Good News: I don’t have to feel bad about giving my grandfather something so impersonal and “last minute” like calvin klein mens underwear or socks for Christmas! I’ve already got his gift and had it bought months ago!

Bad News: The same cannot be said about my Mother. What the hell am I supposed to get this woman that she’ll like and actually use? Not to mention, isn’t a completely impersonal gift to boot. Why must she always be so difficult?

Good News: I got extra hours this week at work due to opening one day, early morning meetings, and helping to cover at the El Paso branch.

Bad News: Since we had such a wonderful snow storm blow in and interstate and a lots highways were closed due to bad conditions, I got yesterday off. No point in me coming in to work if the one road that was still open got closed while I was at work, my boss said. So…I’m not gonna get extra hours this week after all, but I should break even.

Good News: I had my one year evaluation on Monday and I’m getting a raise! It’s only 2% mind you, so it’s probably not even noticeable, but hey, I got a raise!

Bad News: I’ve got repairs to make to Pyro now after that jerk ran me off the road so I need all the extra money I can get.

I haven’t been around online much this past week, and alas, it’s all because of my spectacular lack of grace. I pulled something in my lower back and right leg Thursday before last while I was cleaning out the storage shed. I tripped while carrying a box (good thing it was a box of holiday trinkets and not the rusted band saw blades I’d seen earlier) and twisted around trying to keep from falling and crushing them. I succeeded, but managed to pull something in the process.

For the first few days there was no comfortable position for me to sleep. I found a spot in my computer chair that was halfway decent and got maybe two hours sleep that night and three the next. Needless to say, I missed work on Saturday that week.

My back is feeling much better now, but my leg is still acting up. Though not swelling up like crazy like it was. It especially gives me trouble when I’m sitting for too long, hence why I’m not online much this past week, or standing for too long. Or when I’m getting in/out of my car which has never seemed that low to me until now. Long drives bug it too. Lots of laying down for me with my leg elevated. I’ve been popping ibuprofen like crazy too and smothering my leg in Icy Hot, so needless to say I haven’t donated plasma recently either.

So for those who have emailed me and tried to contact me online, and wondered where I am, I do apologize for not being around much here lately. I am feeling much better though, so I will attempt to start getting back to folks.

This has not been a relaxing, let’s sit down and smoke some cigars and sip brandy (or what have you) kind of weekend for my mother. Her purse was stolen Saturday and it’s been a real headache to find out what was in her purse, contacting everyone that needs to be contacted and informed, and just generally worrying over it.

We were really hoping that, despite what she knew to be true, she had just gone off and left it at work. However, after signing into her accounts online, we discovered that whoever had stolen her purse had already made some purchases using her cards.

A police report has been filed, all of her debit and credit cards have been canceled, and any people that needed to be informed (such as the client who had just paid her and whose uncashed check was still in said purse) as well.

It’s not been fun, and on Monday, my mother’s birthday no less, she has to go to her individual banks and get things squared away. The bastards made a bunch of fraudulent purchases with her debit cards already before they got cancelled, and it looks like they tried to make some more afterwards too. Hopefully those shitheads get what’s coming to them.

Here lately I’ve been having a hard time getting up and moving in the mornings. Part of me just doesn’t want to go in to work here lately, so I really drag my feet in the mornings when I’m getting ready. I take a shower in the morning because I like starting the day off clean and fresh, but also because it’s a good way to wake me up. Usually. Lately though I’ve been lingering in the shower and it’s been taking longer to wake up that way as well.

Well today my kitties decided to change that for me. I’m not really sure who the culprit was, but I’m leaning towards Ichigo since he was hanging out by the bathroom this morning and came scurrying in as soon as I opened the door and started investigating the room.

Picture this: it’s early in the morning, you’re still half-asleep and wondering if you really have to go into work that day, but damn does the shower feel good. You reach for the shampoo when suddenly something dark and about the size of your palm starts jumping around in the shower with you, collides into your legs and keeps hopping all over the place.

Nothing like having a live desert toad in your shower jumping around to really wake you up!

I am sad to say I let out a shriek at first, not knowing what was going on, but eventually I realized what had gotten into my shower with me.

It wasn’t funny then, admittedly, but now it most definitely is.

I come home to a house that looks like it’s been ransacked by a herd of wild animals, but it’s only Denali chasing after the elusive mice that have taken up residence here as well.

Magazines knocked off the contemporary coffee table, along with what looks suspiciously like claw marks on the legs. Pillows on the floor when I know they were in their respective places, books knocked off shelves, anything on the kitchen counters that can be knocked over, has been. And lets not even talk about the toilet paper roll scattered throughout the house.

Denali of course is no where to be found for about an hour. But as soon as I sit down before the computer she’s standing on her back paws with her big furry paw patting my arm to get my attention. She knows I have a bag of cat treats in the drawer and she wants her treat now that her human is home.

She purrs contentedly after having a few, stays for a few minutes for scratches and attention then disappears. The only evidence I have of her presence is the occasional banging sound of her opening cabinet doors in pursuit of mice and the lowering levels of food and water in her dishes that I’ve just refilled.

Then, as I get ready to call it a night I spy her out in the living room asleep on the couch.

I’m thinking Denali has begun to consider me a non-entity in her life since I’m never home it seems. Just the human that feeds her and gives her treats. Maybe she needs another furry friend to keep her company during the day?

All I can say, is that right now, coming home to these messes is not fun. Not to mention, there’s something disconcerting about having a pet in the house that you don’t really see.

Dear Mother Nature,

We are desert-dwelling folks. Temperatures that drop to 30F are freezing cold to us. Snow that falls over night and lightly dusts the ground and melts by noon time is like, wow end of the world stuff.

So how the hell do you think we can possibly tolerate single digit temperatures and wind chill factors that actually put the temperature to below freezing overnight?

Yeah, that’s what we’ve been dealing with these past couple of days. It snowed Tuesday night and left the entire area here in chaos. Roads were covered in ice and snow, snow flurries flying down. To top it off, El Paso Electric lost two of their power generators so they couldn’t keep up with power demands and were doing rolling blackouts on Tuesday to alleviate the stress as they bought more energy from other states.

Wednesday night didn’t see any real new snow fall (thankfully!) but since the temperature never rose higher than 15F here, what little snow that melted just turned to ice. Then, during the night, the temperature dropped to 6F where I lived and the wind was about 20mph which gave us a nice windchill factor of -4F. So temperatures last night were actually below freezing.

To top it off, Wednesday morning I had awoken to find my pipes frozen. I went into work Wednesday and since the electricity went out some time after I left and barely came back on around the time I got home (2:30pm) my efforts to thaw the pipes that day were wasted. I ended up buying a ton of bottled water from the truck-stop and gathering some snow to melt to use to flush the toilet. Needless to say my pipes are still frozen. I’m getting them worked on right now. Putting Heat Tape on ‘em to unthaw them and prevent them from freezing again tonight.

And to make matter’s worse, the pipes at my Mom and grandfather’s house were frozen too, as well as all the neighbors. No one could really help anyone on that regard. I didn’t go in to work today specifically so I could get this fixed and (hopefully) prevent my pipes from bursting. That and since I didn’t get to shower since Tuesday morning and it’s now Thursday…I’m figuring they wouldn’t exactly appreciate me there smelling all rank and dealing with members.

Last night was so cold too! Even the poor local wildlife was suffering:

I found four different birds just like this one on the yard dead from the exposure to the elements. Poor little guys. This is Southern New Mexico, we’re not supposed to get weather like this. Obviously they just couldn’t handle it. It’s barely “warming up” right now too with the current temperatures being 12F out right now. No one who doesn’t have to wants to get out in this weather. It might not be snowing anymore and no real significant amount of snow fell last night, but the roads are still icy and it’s frigging cold. Not even my neighbor, who will always be out in the +40mph wind to make sure his no trespassing signs signs are secured to his fence has ventured out. And that’s saying something since I don’t see any of the signs on his fence anymore!

Because of Denali, I didn’t have any batteries for a while, so I didn’t get any really good photos on Wednesday when there was snow all over the place. Just some that morning before work and today’s black ice still stuck to my car. There’s also still snow on the lawn and sidewalk, but it’s thin and will hopefully melt away today.

I’ve gotta busy day mapped out ahead of me. I have to go to the bank, drop off some packages at the post office, stop at the grocery store, get the laundry done, pay some bills, and a ton of other little errands as well. It’s crazy!

I finished getting the laundry rounded up a few minutes ago. I’m planning to get some bills paid first, then head to the post office before going to the laundromat. I figure that at this time of day, the laundromats aren’t packed with screaming yelling kids who have leave dangers spills and power wheels lying around for the unwary to trip over. I tend to prefer going late at night to the 24-hour one for this reason. After 9pm during the week the place is positively dead. Love it! But I can’t see wasting the gas for another trip when I’ll already be up in town for most of the day. Know what I mean?

While I’m out and about I’m also going to be papering the town with applications and my resume. Here’s hoping I get a nibble this time!

It’s almost October and yet for some reason this house still seems to be stifling hot during the day. It’s actually kind of aggravating because it’s been raining off and on this past week so it’s hot and muggy in the house now. Joy.

The reason I’m thinking about this right now is the fact that I just saw an infomercial for electric fireplaces and it reminded me that I should be putting the room fans up and digging out the electric space heaters now. Instead, I’m turning the fans on every day and I’m not even tempted to get the heaters out. How weird is that? I didn’t even realize that the temperature seems to be off, for this time of year, until I saw the infomercial.

And wow, those electric fireplaces are pretty cool. The infomercial I saw was about ones that had wooden frames built by the Amish. They’re small, easy to move around, and take up as much energy as a coffee pot. Sweet huh? They’re only $300 too. Wait, what?! Yeah, that was my reaction too. Sorry Amish dudes, I’m sticking with my little space heaters.

I just realized something else, this will be the first fall/winter in years where I won’t have to chase Isis away from the front of a heater to make sure she doesn’t end up laying there all day and dehydrate herself. The first year I won’t be bundling her up in her little sweaters, or pulling back the covers on the bed and checking them carefully for a certain kitty who liked to burrow in them to make sure I don’t sit on her or something. No Isis sitting under my desk by my feet to take advantage of being with me and by the small floor heater I usually put there.

And no Isis to see Christmas lights with either. This winter seems extra depressing all of a sudden.

I was given the opportunity to sample and review some products from CareCleaningAndProtection.com. The product I got to review was their SaniGuard Surface Sanitizing Spray (sanitizer). The following review is composed of my own honest opinion and experience.

As I mentioned in the video review, it’s kind of hard to test the over all effectiveness of a sanitizer and it’s ability to kill germs without, you know, having the germs and what not there to actually kill. I would have really liked to try this out for a lengthy period during the flu season. Now that would be an awesome test right there.

The sanitizer comes in these 0.75oz cans, is simple to use, and has a pleasant and clean lemony scent to it. The sanitizer is designed to kill 99.99% of the germs that can cause MRSA, HIV, Staph, E-coli, and influenza – definitely something you’d want to use in a work place (or anywhere really) that sees a heavy amount of traffic. I was pleased to note that the spray did not have an overpowering and harsh chemical scent to it like I had feared. Also, as someone with rather delicate skin, I was also pleased to note that I did not have any adverse reaction to the sanitizer when my skin made contact with the surfaces that had been treated with it over time.

For me, the sanitizer spray would not be that ideal given the price and the quantity that the sanitizer is available for on the website.

The first thought that went through my head when I heard my cell phone start ringing was “It’s a damn good thing I’m already awake” swiftly followed by a litany of words that really shouldn’t be repeated. I mean seriously, who would be silly enough to call me at 6:15 in the morning? I’m a notorious night-owl, I sleep in late, and even when I have to wake up early I am slow going and grouchy as hell. So who in their right mind who brave calling me this early?

My grandfather would.

Well okay, it must be an emergency right? Um no, apparently there’s some dinner and seminar thing that he RSVP’d for this evening and he wants me to attend as his guest. Said he would more than likely not fully understand everything being said and would like me to go with him. Okay, I dig that. But what is with the last minute notice? Seriously, my internet was dragging last night so I went up to a 24-hr lab in ‘Cruces. I was out and didn’t get back until a little while ago and was fixing to go to bed. Now I have to be sure to wake up early this afternoon to get things done in order to be ready when he drops by to pick me up.

I probably should have said no, but oh well. I just really wanna go to bed now. I’m tired and grumpy because – you’ll think I’m pulling your leg – I had to deal with the stupidest person ever at the lab.

You see, the lab has wi-fi and some poor schmuck brought his laptop, left it there to go do something, and came back to see it gone-gone. Now I got there a little after midnight and there was no laptop there. I did see a bag at one of the tables, but didn’t think much of it. I was there for about five hours and there was no laptop at that table when I got there. I was fixing to leave when the guy came in, and just started cursing. I was shutting down my laptop and glanced up to see some dorky guy standing at the table with a bag cursing up a blue-streak before he whirled around to look at me and started yelling at me to tell him what I did with his laptop.

Somehow I managed not to snap at the moron and simply told him, nice and calm-like, that I didn’t know what he was talking about and that this was my laptop. To which of course the guy replied with “I’m not talking about that piece of shit, I’m talking about my laptop”. My response was not exactly nice at that point and was something along the lines of “I don’t even know you so how would I know what you did with your stuff”. He was not pleased and started yelling about how he left his laptop “right there” while pointing at the table with the bag and claiming he left for just a little bit and how I had to know what happened to it.

I was very tempted to laugh at him then. The place is a24-hr lab that anyone can waltz into why would you go off and leave something valuable for an extended period of time and expect it to still be there? I hate just leaving mine long enough to go the restroom and will often ask someone to watch my stuff for me. Although truthfully, I usually just wait or bundle my stuff up and take it with me. More hassle, sure, but at least my stuff is there.

Anyway, I eventual got through to the guy and explained how long I’d been there and that there was no laptop on that table when I got there. In fact, no one was there pretty much the entire time I was. The guy was distraught over his lost laptop, crying about how he should have lo-jacked his computer or at least gotten laptop insurance, and going on about how all his work was gone. I might have felt sorry for the guy if he’d, I dunno, apologized for yelling at me and accusing me of stealing his laptop. The whole time he never apologized and even after I told him that I hadn’t seen anything, literally since there was no laptop there when I got there, he kept insinuating that I had it in my bag; which was just a purse big enough for my wallet, keys, mouse, and power cord because initially I hadn’t planned on being there that long and was holding my laptop in my arms. Oh yeah, I really had his computer in my purse. Then he kept insisting I knew what happened. I eventually left that idiot ranting and just left. Stopped long enough to find a security guard that walks the perimeter and filled him in on what happened so he could help the moron fill out a lost/stolen report.

The security guard’s response was priceless – he rolled his eyes and mutter “what a fuckin’ moron” under his breath before heading down the hall to the lab.

I couldn’t agree more.

It has been exceptionally muggy and humid today. So much so that the air conditioner (read: swamp cooler) has made no great difference at all. It has been thundering like crazy since yesterday but the rain never came. That, in conjunction with the kids on the atv and dirt bike that keep driving up and down the street annoying every dog at every house has been driving me insane. Hard to get anything accomplished when it’s so sticky-hot and it’s even harder to just relax when you’ve got over a dozen dogs barking and howling every few minutes.

Just a little while ago the electricity flickered off briefly, there was some heavy thunder, and then the rain finally came down. My annoyance was over, right? No kids riding around in this and the humidity began lifting. All is good, right? WRONG! There are three individual leaks in my ceiling right now. One outside the kitchen (where the vent for the swamp cooler is), one in the kitchen over the door, and the third in the bathroom and directly over the toilet. The leaks weren’t there before, aside from the swamp cooler one and that only seemed to occur if the rain was really bad and was being blown in somehow. These other leaks though are just outta the blue completely.

Guess who’s gonna be climbing on the roof tomorrow to find the sources? Yeah. Fun.

And here I actually wanted it to rain.

I got a call from Dr. Calista’s earlier today, just barely bringing myself to write about it now. Isis passed away today, she 14 years old. The vet is unsure what exactly caused Isis’ illness still as they were waiting for her to come off the IV fluids before doing a urine sample. They were sure it was her kidney’s however, just not what exactly.

This news, it comes as a shock as I had gotten an update that last night that, although she was still critical, she had improved greatly.

Now, now she’s gone and all I can think is that if I had just gotten her to the vet sooner, if I had just noticed she was sick and not hiding away in a napping spot as usual, she might still be here. Isis has been with me so long, since middle school in fact, and it’s just impossible to think she’s not going to be here anymore. Last night I missed her trilling meows when I went to sleep and actually called for her, forgetting that she wasn’t there. I told myself “she’ll be better in no time and sleeping smack-dab in the middle of my bed and refusing to budge once-again in no time”. But now, now I know that yesterday’s car ride was her last and that when she stretched out her paw to me as I was handing her over to the vet she was waving goodbye because it was the last time I’d see her. My little attack-cat, sand-kitty, sleepy-time-kitty, my Cici, my little goddess, my Isis is gone now and she’s not coming home anymore.

Ugh. You know how there a bunch of sites out there that offer you “quick weight loss tips“? Here’s my tip and it’s not on any of those lists. Drive around in 100+ weather with the sun shinning down on you in a car with no air conditioning. Woo boy, you’ll be sweating them pounds away in no time!

Yeah, I did that today.

My grandfather got in a car accident (again) yesterday evening. He’s fine, thankfully, but the truck isn’t. The front is pretty badly mashed up, and it had to be towed. Since it was towed all the way from here to Las Cruces there was a nice towing charge he had to pay. His insurance will reimburse him, but in the mean time, he has to pay it. So he asked me to drive him into town today so he could pay it. No biggie right?

The man had to pick the one towing agency that is the farthest away! It all the way on the other side of town. So there I am in the sweltering heat, sitting in traffic, no A/C, windows rolled up, and listening to my grandfather lecture me on how to drive and nitpicking my car. Lovely.

It was windy today, so there was dust in the air, and my grandfather insisted on windows up. Crazy man. I kept them cracked open a bit, but boy oh boy, was it hot! I keep meaning to get the A/C fixed, but it’s low on my priority list. Today though, you can bet I was wishing I had fixed it after all.

I wonder if my grandfather will keep his truck or finally get a smaller one now? It’s a 2000 Chevy Silverado with an extended cab and extended bed. Considering this is like his …um… 9th, 10th wreck in that truck (that I know of, who knows how many others I don’t know about) I think it’s time he admit he’s too old to be driving a vehicle like that and just get him a small little pickup truck instead.

I got roped into going to another seminar with my mom, this time it’s one that doesn’t interest me in the least – it’s a tax seminar. *yawns* After that whole fiasco with her former employer, Mom hasn’t been interested in attending any of the tax seminars in El Paso, but since this one is in Albuquerque, she’s eager to go because they [former employers] won’t be there. But she doesn’t feel like making the trip by herself and asked me to come along. I’ve pretty much got nothing better to do so I figure, two days out of town might be nice and give me some breathing room.

There is a downside though, what to do about my cats. Normally leaving one of those feeders stocked with cat food would be a good idea, but I’ve had to put up with a bit of a roach problem lately. Not too eager to feed the roaches I’ve been combating. Know what I mean? Not to mention Isis tends to gorge herself if food is left out instead of just eating her fill and coming back later. Oh no, she’ll sit there and try to eat it all. Gotta find someone to feed the girls while I’m gone and time’s almost up because I leave early Wednesday morning.

I got everything I need for the trip though, and even managed to find a fathers day present for my grandfather while I was stocking up at Wal-Mart too.

Will definitely be taking my laptop with me. Hopefully the motel/hotel/whatever has wi-fi.

Just finished eating a nice yummy dinner comprised of nothing but leftovers!

From right to left we have quelites (spinach and pinto beans), lentejas, green enchiladas, and rice.

Yeah, it’s really late and I shouldn’t have eaten dinner this late, but I spent most of the day cleaning the house from top to bottom. Even after the longest shower in recorded history I could smell all of the cleaning chemicals on me still. Not to mention, my stomach was queasy as hell from smelling all of the chemicals and from skipping lunch to boot.

First thing that got done today – kicked the cats outside. Denali was happy enough with that, Isis not so much. But I planned on taking the house apart and cats get underfoot when there is serious cleaning going on. Not to mention, with all the chemicals being used, I didn’t want them inside inhaling the shit. Since the weather has warmed up considerably, I took this chance to battle the roach infestation that has somehow settled in. Covered furniture, closed off rooms I didn’t want affected, then set off some foggers early this morning around 6am. I ended up doing some yard work while giving it a chance to do its stuff before going back in the house late in the day. I attacked the carpet in the living room and hall got it vacuumed, cleaned, and vacuumed again. Then attacked the walls and ceilings in the rooms that I set off the foggers. Then scrubbed, bleachified, pine sol’d, and just cleaned everything until it shined and smelled lovely. Still gotta do laundry though.

For the most part, my hands don’t look like they’re in serious need of the world’s best anti wrinkle cream anymore. They did stay submerged in soapy, chemical-laden water for the most part today after all. Then I showered for almost two hours. Not surprising they look like they belong to an old lady. They’re also all dried-out now too.

There is a plus side though! I closed the door to my bedroom and had some downloads running all day while I was cleaning away. As a result, I am now all caught up on the latest episodes of Bleach, Naruto Shippuuden, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Not to mention, I FINALLY have the second Original Soundtrack for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood too. Been listening to it ever since I got it. My favorite tracks on it are: 4. Envy Revealed; 6. Xing Symphony ~Overture~; 20. The Land of Ishvala; 25. Battle Scherzo; and 30. To Be King. Honestly, Akira Senju’s second OST for FMA: Brotherhood is better then the first over all, although I did like the first one well enough.

February 12th has come and gone and now I am a year older, a little more tired and jaded, broker then I was last year at this time, but I am a little bit wiser. Fair trade off? I’ll get back to you on that.

Honestly though, as far as birthdays go, mine was pretty nice. It was mostly spent with family and friends. I met with some old friends for an early birthday breakfast, then later, my mom took me out for dinner to a restaurant of my choice, a tradition of hers that she insists upon maintaining. After much consideration I went with Famous Dave’s BBQ. I’ve eaten at Carrino’s and Si Senor many a time, Texas Roadhouse not so much. I’d never eaten at Famous Dave’s before though, although I have had some of their food a couple of times when they catered a few work related events. From what food I got in those instances it was delicious and I really wanted to sit down and give their food a try.

Oh boy was I glad I did! I had the Two-Meat BBQ Combo plate and chose brisket and barbecued chicken and my sides were potato salad and their fries; read: potato wedges. Absolutely delicious! I tried every single sauce they had on the table, and I have to say, the Texas Pit one was my favorite. I had two glasses of their Smokin’ Tea (their version of a Long Island Ice Tea) that came out in HUGE glasses that were the equivalent of two drinks in one, so I guess you could say I had four drinks. For desert I had their Kahlua brownie which was this huge brownie with walnuts in it, a scoop of ice cream, and drizzled with Kahlua and chocolate sauce and included whipped cream. Heaven I tell you, heaven.

Probably not the best place to have eaten, given that I’ve been trying to loose weight, but it was soooo worth it. *drools* My great aunt gifted me with a ton of Bath & Body Works products for my birthday, but after eating all that yummy food, maybe it would have been better if she’d gifted me with stretch marks creams instead. I feel so guilty for eating all that food, yet I don’t regret it and would love to go again soon.

I was glad that the weather was so nice today. It got a little breezy late in the afternoon, but for the most part there were clear skies and the temperature stayed in the high fifties (Fahrenheit) before dipping into the forties on the way home.

I got a lot of awesome gifts too: from items I’ve been wanting for my home office; gift cards to my favorite places and nice places to eat at; B&BW merchandise (can never go wrong there); even this cool little wooden chest that came filled with candles, incense, and oils. And of course, as always, I got a ton of flowers and candy too. Still haven’t figured out if it’s a good thing my birthday isn’t actually on Valentine’s day or not. My bedroom and the living room looks like a florist shop exploded in it right now. Boxes and boxes of Valentine’s candy, a plethora of vases filled with every Valentine’s day bouquet conceivable, and I’ve even broken out with jars and glasses and filled them with sugar water to hold the long-cut roses and carnations I’ve been gifted with too.

Strangely enough, while I got a ton of candy of flowers, per the norm, I didn’t get any Valentine’s Day plushes. Not that I’m complaining mind you, it was just something odd and out of the norm to note. I did however still get a plush this year, but I’m not complaining:

Yes! I got a Dallas Cowboys monkey plush. I’ve always wanted one of these and was so thrilled when I received it. Definitely one of my favorite birthday gifts this year.

Just got home a little while ago, and let me tell you, boy am I glad to be home. People are crazy on the roads, that’s a given, but it’s always worse when it’s raining. It’s like all common sense they might have possessed is washed away with the rain. Not to mention the scaredy-cat drivers who should just really stay off the road if they’re that afraid that a little water is going to make them wipe out.

I spent most of the day driving around town and applying at various places I’ve seen looking to hire new employees, including HFH. I’m still reeling over the fact that one of my references on my resume were apparently bath-mouthing me every chance they got. Why? Because they have a beef with my mother and apparently thought sabotaging my employment attempts was a nice means of revenge. I feel stupid for not realizing that, that’s what was happening before, hell I forgot I had That Woman as a reference to be honest. The last time I had to update my resume my mother and That Woman were still on good terms and she offered to be a reference for me since I used to work with her too.

All those months of “you don’t have the qualities we’re looking for” and other not so nicely put comments and it was all because of her. That really burns me up, I could have very well had a job by now!

After I finished submitting my resume and applications I drove on over to Hobby Lobby in search of something to better help organize my desk with. I was wanting a desk organizer sort of like this, but smaller, or some kind of corner shelf that could be placed on the desk. Everything I was finding though was way too big so Hobby Lobby became my last resort. If I couldn’t find anything I liked or could use I was going to pick up some plywood from there and build my own.

I lucked out and found a three-drawer storage bin over in the scrapbooking supplies section. It’s a small one (about 3″ in width and 4″ in height) but it fits on the desk better the the larger one did and leaves me with plenty of surface space to work with. The larger one would have fit just fine mind you, but it would have been awkward since I have a lamp that would have been in the way and any papers in front of it would always have to be moved in order to open the bottom drawer. So yeah, this one works better, even if it’s not exactly what I wanted. Still, it means I won’t have everything shoved in the one desk drawer that works (the center one is broken) or in an assortment of cups and jars on the desktop either. After I get the desk organized how I want it I’ll take pictures and post them!

When I got home today I found a box from Gevalia coffee waiting for me too. Considering how cold it is and the rain that’s still coming down, seeing that box was like glimpsing heaven. So I have some coffee brewing now, and the electric heaters are barely starting to warm the house up. I wish I had one of those Amish fireplaces. I bet that would warm the house up faster!

Yare, yare. The day has hardly begun and I’m exhausted and ready to crawl back into bed and catch a few winks. My grandfather, unfortunately, suffers from arthritis and it has a bad habit of acting up when he least expects it. So I got called over to help load the truck with the barrels of trash, old lumber, and fallen limbs that he’s hauling to the landfill today. Aye, yai, yai. My arms are killing me.

I’ve been looking around the web and reading sites that have information for people with rheumatoid arthritis to try and better understand the treatments/medicine that can be taken for it since I’m pretty sure neglecting to mention it to your doctor and popping Bayer when it gets too bad isn’t the way the go. Yeah, that’s my grandfather. Stubborn old man. Gotta love him.

Gonna finish eating my cup ramen (spicy beef!) then go take a shower and get dressed. I had planned on going shopping today for a few things I need for my office. I wanted to get a new corkboard to go over my desk as well as another desk organizer to sit on my desk. See, since my desk is a flat-top one (no shelves) I wanted to ask my grandfather to build me something to accommodate my reference books and various pen holders that wouldn’t take up much surface space. I was thinking of a desktop organizer kinda like this, but smaller. I have one, of a sort, on my desk already. But it’s narrow and designed more to hold paperback novel width books. So while novels and the like fit on the bottom shelf and pen holders and nick nacks fit on top, not much else can. It’s not the full-length of the desk either. So I wanted something to fit on the unoccupied corner that could do the job. Tall order right? Well, my grandfather is awesome with wood working and carpentry and is the one who built my bookcases, trunks, jewelery boxes, and even my chest of drawers. But with his arthritis acting up so bad I don’t dare ask him to do it. Not only would it likely depress him if he has to say no (realizing he can’t do it under current circumstances) but the thought of him going anywhere near a table saw right now is frightening.

So yeah, off to hunt through Staples, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and various thrift stores in hopes of finding what I need. Wish me luck!