Hadjare = asshole.

Sigh. Yesterday I was finally able to send the doubles I had gotten for my family and friend: Dad, Andrew/Lori, Jessie and my Mom. Along with my Mom's pictures I sent a photocopy of our a sewing machine manual (we have the same machine), some cut out pictures of fairies from a calender, a few photocopies of some flowers or something (coloring), a letter and some seeds. I was pretty proud of myself for FINALLY getting those packages sent since they have been sitting on my coffee table for 3 weeks or so. Yesterday after getting home I found a letter from my Mom asking for $30 to pay a driver to take my brother to Marshfield for a fitness exam (to see if he is fit enough to undergo a surgery to remove most of his rotten teeth). Now, if she had just called to ask I could have included it in the package! NOOOoooo she had to write a letter.

So I sent a Get Well card to Josh today with $31 dollars...all I had -- which is a lot more than I usually have because I had just gotten some money out yesterday. Anyway, I actually felt a little bad that I couldn't send $40. The reason for the $30 was that they finally convinced the county to provide a driver who would be reimbursed 33 cents a mile...but that driver insists that he needs to be paid $30 the day of - which is March 30. He wouldn't reschedule and they couldn't find anyone else to do it. If you know anything about the end of the month finances then you know finding this much money is hard...and when you have to ask me then I know they are desperate.

Why? Because many years ago I told them specifically to never ask me for money. I only said that though after many many years of mooching and you know eventually you have to set limits. That said, I usually send them some money during the month, and there are a few times when they have asked - -but they have been true emergencies. So now that you know that, you know why they sent a letter asking.

On the other hand, come on! It's almost the end of the month and it would have been so much easier to send it yesterday when I was downtown and access more money and blah blah blah. So I sent it today.

This evening as we were just about to sit down do a italian meatball and tortelli crock potted dinner and fresh from the oven biscuits -- the phone rang. I was my Dad. He already got the photos. So we talked a little and then I talked to Barb. After that, Tim called his Dad and they talked for awhile. We walked Pluto causing me to miss My Name is Earl -- but that's okay, and came home. I was sitting down working on the afgan when the phone rang. I debated letting the answering machine get it but answered it anyway. Really I should have let the machine get it -- that was when I noticed there was already a message. It was my step-dad -- you know he doesn't call often. I knew right away why he was calling.

He said he got the package and that they loved it. Then he asked if I got Mom's letter. I said "Yes I sent the money to Josh today."
"What?"
"I sent the money to Josh in the mail today," I responded, irritated.
"We'll pay you back the next day," he said.
"You don't have to," I said "It was a gift to Josh."

Small talk ensues.

"So we'll write you a letter and send it on the second and send the money then," he repeats.
"It was a gift to Josh," I said.
"Well...."
"It was a gift...to....Josh. I do not need to be paid back." I stated.

"Well, I better let you go," he said.
"Yeah okay, talk to you later," I replied, already feeling disgusted with myself.

Sigh. So now I feel like a bastard and am going to have to apologize in the next letter about how I wasn't feeling well or something. I just hate how I lose my temper like that. My family can make my blood boil in two minutes flat.

I look like I'm 15 again! Yeah, it's so cool to have oodles of acne everywhere....thank god for bangs. :P

Tim's Mom called tonight to tell us that his Dad got a calling at the place he is currently at. What a freaking relief! We won't have to move them ... hopefully...ever again. She has a LOT of crap. A lot. But the place they are in right now is really nice, it's like a five bedroom house, full kitchen, living room, foyer upstairs, fully finished downstairs level with a patio and lots of light, three bathrooms, big garage .... oh and it's out in the middle of nowhere, but they don't care. I wouldn't either. It's a dream come true for them. Believe it or not, I'm really happy for them. Finally, Rev. Tim is in a place where he is wanted and appreciated. :D

Tonight was a great TV night -- How I Met Your Mother, Heroes and then The Riches. I was able to put some quality time on finishing my afgan. I have to finish it in two and half weeks -- as I plan on giving it to my Mom for Mother's day. I hope it'll be big enough. It said it was Afgan throw...so maybe it might be better for when she is sitting. I would be tempted to go out and buy more yarn to make it bigger, but then there is no way in hell I'd get it done. I'll just go with the recommended pattern size. I don't always have to "improve" things.

This last weekend was great! Tim totally did stuff around the outside of the house. Not so much on the inside -- and for some reason when I came home from work today I noticed that all the work I did last week was demolished! The mopped floors were dirty again thanks to a dirty dog and yard working husband...there are still piles of crap on every surface because I REALLY need to finish them and if I put them away then they won't be finished (tomorrow it will....and this time I mean it!). This week though, the house will be worked on. I am sick and tired of it being so piggy and unorganized. Oh wait, I might forgoe the house to catch up on correspondence...hm that is a very tantalizing thought. If I do that, then I'll have mail to wait upon WHILE I clean the house. Because you know, it's just gonna get dirty again.

I should go and put the clean laundry away that is strewn on the bed...but instead I think I'm just gonna shove it back into it's basket and just go to bed myself. Tim will be home soon from his Monday night game and has to let the dog out, take out the garbage and feed the possum. I should be pretending I am asleep by then.

Gosh, was April always this boring?

This morning we got up after a great night's sleep, and headed to Lake Geneva to walk dogs. We both actually ended up doing a lot of dog walking and got in 1.5 hours! Cool. On the way home we stopped and tried out Taco Bell's seven layer crunch wrap. Eh. I don't know if I need to have that again.

Got home and Tim went into SUPER productive mode. He cleaned the gutters, the car, stirred the mulch pit, weeded our lily patch and added mulch/soil. We did leave briefly to go to the grand opening of the East side Animart and got some cheap food, signed up for some raffles and watched pitt bulls and malamutes complete in a weight pulling competition. Man, I had no idea that malamutes were such sassy dogs. Almost every single of them had a few things to say about pulling someting heavy. It was hilarous...I would totally love to have a malamute when I move to Alaska.

Anyway, hat did I do while he did all that? I did what anyone would do on a beautiful Saturday, spring afternoon -- I took a long freaking nap. But let me tell you, that nap was very, and truly awesome. After I got up, we headed over to Walgreens to get some vitamin's and microwave popcorn, and then to the nearby liquor store to get some beer (Leinne's has a new beer mix called Shandy -- it's awesome! Wheat beer with lemonade flavoring ... or rather natural lemon flavors. Not as sweet as the pink lemonade with beer mix we made two summers ago, but tasty nonetheless). Following that we stopped at Michael's Frozen custard for some sweet treats. Ahh.

Came home and instead of watching a movie and eating popcorn like we planned, Tim went to play video games and drink beer while I watched Dodgeball and surfed the net all night. Now I am heating up some spank-o-neta (totally misspelled) for a late night dinner and then I am going to head to bed. All this sleeping has me beat. ;)

Tomorrow we are going to get a new mp3 player for me (Tim is taking my "old" one) so that he can have music to work out with....and ...there was something else were were going to do. I forget what it was...hm. Maybe think about garden..no that isn't it. It's going to be raining tomorrow so we don't have TOO many plans to leave the house. Just sit around and groom the cats. All of the pets decided to start shedding. I had Tim take Pluto outside to try and get rid of a few layers. He said that he is going to need another brushing soon. I would love to take the cats outside to brush them and let the wind take their fur away instead of having it collect on the floor....but they are terrified of the great outdoors (as right they should be).

Man, I have oodles of mail to catch up with. I did spend this last week trying to catch up with email, I am pretty proud of that. Last Thursday I had scrabble night with some friends and totally lost. I guess I wasn't in the scrabble jive...maybe I need to play more.

Oh yeah! That's it! Tim and I were thinking about playing some board games tomorrow. I don't know how likely that is to really happen though. Too bad he doesn't love cribbage or scrabble, or scategories like I do. :(

Well, I think my greek pastery is almost cooked. I should go check and see if there is any good TV on while I eat it. Then I'm really gonna hit the hay.

What an exciting Saturday night, I know.

Guess what we got today? A new fridge! It's a bisque, Amana with a freezer on the bottom...oh it's nice. The delivery folks got the old out and the new one in and all set up within 20 minutes. I was originally gonna give them $10 as a tip, but since the "leader dude" looked and acted SO my like my brother's brother Cody, I upped it an extra $5. Seriously, I found Cody's doppleganger and he works in Madison for Brother's Main as a delivery dude.

Oh the sun is coming up...it's ... blinding.

I shut Pluto in the bedroom while this was going on, and by the end he was whining his head off. As soon as they left, I let him out and he followed me around for 10 minutes with that wounded dog look. He just doesn't get that he would have been in the way and a total pain. Of course he wouldn't get that....he's Pluto.

Hurray for new fridge, I can't wait to try it out. The instructions say we can start adding food tonight around 8:00. Though I won't be here because I am going to be playing some scrabble.

oh yesterday I made the BEST cupcakes ever. It one package of jiffy devil's food, a cup of chocolate chips and a package of chocolate instant pudding...(it was the snack cake recipe on the box). It's SOOOOooooo good. I can't believe how delicious it is. I had two last night and one for breakfast. We also had tuna fish casserole.

Yeah, so...fridge. I can't wait to really try it out in the next week.

It started on Friday with no appetite and feeling achy. By the time I got home, it turned into full fledge "it' hurts to exist" achiness, visits to the bathroom every ten minutes with severe diarrhea, eventual barfing, and all over "I'm probably going to expire from this."

I haven't been sick in a long time, and of course the method it chooses to reintroduce itself is the stomach flu. :( AND on a weekend where I actually had some freaking plans! I was going to attend After Work beer on Friday with Oliver, Tim and Marc. Then on Saturday, Amy and I were going to have breakfast and go estate sale shopping -- I even bought a paper to get my info! (Not that I ever felt well enough to look at it. It's still in my bag.)

Sigh. So all day has been spent on the couch and in bed feeling not as terrible as last night, but still miserable. *cry* At least it wasn't the first really good weekend of spring yet.

Still. Make it go away!

I have a lot to do today. I have a list of things that MUST BE DONE. I'll update as the day progresses.

1. State taxes - sign the forms, attach the w2's and put it in the mail.

2. Package up my penpals care package that has been sitting here for two weeks -- possibly write another short card explaining what complete and utter dumbass I am for letting it slide. However, at least she doesn't know I am sending it to her...it's so much worse when the person is expecting it and I am super late.

3. I have a bunch of picture doubles that I want to send out -- package those up too so that the trip to the post office is worth it.

4. Go to the damn post office.

5. Take shower and wash that grease right outta my hair! (oh and get dressed).

6. Mark off the cabinetry that is going to be jigsawed. This might require moving the refrigerator ... which means it might have to wait until the DH is home to make sure I don't accidentally break a cord with my immense strength. Or not, it depends on how antzy I get.

7. Clean as many floors as possible.

In other news, I have been making an effort to take a walk every single day. I get in about an hour (40 min with the dog and about 20 min walking to and from buses). I think that will increase as spring and summer progress. So far it's working out pretty good. I only skipped one day in the last two weeks -- because it was cold.

Speaking of which, there is supposed to be 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow! Hurray! Christmas is finally here! I can't freaking wait.

Maybe this is just spring fever talking, but I also feel like I want to meet some new friends. Perhaps that just means I need to spend more time with the ones I do have -- but you know they have lives. Besides there is something exciting about getting to know someone new. I've been thinking of lately of how to go about meeting new friends. It's harder when you are older for sure. A class would probably be the best way to do it....or maybe I should cultivate a deeper friendship with an older friend? I don't know. I had this dream the other night, it was so great, and I felt wonderful after waking up for a few hours. It started off with me and a bunch of people that eventually dwindled down to a few, two of which were my french inlaws. The next morning I ditched them (though they tried to follow me) and went on this great adventure by myself that included a step elevator tower (dude, it's a dream that doesn't have to make sense), a princess convention at the capitol, ugly stepsisters, mud, revolution...oh it was great. I realized as I went through the dream that I don't need anyone when I get like this -- I just need to get back on the saddle of doing things myself. Creating my own interesting stories and companionship by spending time with myself doing various things.

So of course, now I am jazzed up to do just that. I am envisioning a spring/summer filled with trips to the farmer's market for a pastry on Saturday, free concerts, going to gardens, trips to the dog park, working on the yard, maybe taking a class of some sort - -basically looking through the Isthmus reader and trying to find things to do on a weekly basis.

My life needs a powerbar, and I'm about to give it one.

Happy Easter!

Today, right after I finish this coffee, I'm gonna go wash my face, brush my hair, put on my Art Gecko skirt and some kind of ....colored shirt to offset the black, wear my flat shoes and .... then I will drive us to easter dinner! Woo!

But we do have to let the dog out before that....and ... yeah. That's about it. We are supposed to leave no later than 10..so I should quit blogging and get a move on.

Have a great day folks. I hope now that spring break and Easter weekend are almost over that people will start posting again. I have gotten to the point where I started to look elsewhere for content. I know, I'm a little spotty myself -- I can also be hypocritical. ;)

Man, I am tired today, and this cold weather sure doesn't help matters. I cannot wait for Monday and normalish spring temperatures to return. Ahhh 50's sound heavenly, doesn't it?

This weekend we are -- uh... I don't know yet. I know on Sunday we are driving up to Hilbert to visit the In-laws for Easter. So I guess that'll take most of Sunday. That leaves Saturday and this afternoon/evening free. I do need to work on the afgan, I barely worked on it at all this week! At this rate I really won't finish by May.

No, I will.

Sigh.

It's a god thing that I have a sparkling personality, because I just finished looking through my ordered prints from Kodak. I just have to remember that we are each our own worst critic.

That said, I am a slouchy, overweight, moon faced, splotchy, acne ridden, frizzied hair dumpy person. :(


Okay, self. Remember that in 10 years you'll back on these photos and marvel at how awesome you looked! In ten years I will be my own beauty queen. Right? Right. Just need to push back that what I see is not what other people see. I have my own judgment clouding my vision, and making me see things that aren't there, or that are overblown. Still, I wish I could always look I think I look -- tall, straight, not moonfaced or slouchy and chubbtastic. Oh sure there are a few photos...but am I going to obsess over them? Of course not folks.

Moving on. This morning I met with Lowen for breakfast at the Sunprint Cafe on State Street. I think it's the first time that I have eaten there. Their food was cheap, the atmosphere was nice and we had a long chat. After that she gave me a ride home and planned to repeat this adventure in two more weeks. You know, gotta keep the news fresh. ;)

I then spent the rest of the morning finishing up some correspondence, and then when the mail came I looked through the photos. Other things on my list include: posting in wazika, put dishes away and eat lunch. I have accomplish two out of those three things...I would also like to clean the floors in this place.

Holy cow it's cold outside! This cold snap is for the birds! One good thing, is that its sunny. That makes staying inside just a little bit nicer - and staying inside is supposedly incentive to get some housework done, right? Crap, I still need to send in State Taxes. okay, that is going on the list for sure...and this time I mean it. Yesterday was super windy! It was so windy I was completely uninspired to walk Pluto with Tim. He didn't even ask me, because I guess I am that predictable. Gosh, I am such a wuss.

As I type right now, my fingers are cold, Pluto is hogging half the couch and Migo is hitting me in the head with her tail as she stands on the back of the couch and meowtters at some bird. Cats. They have such little respect for their house companions.

I've been reading me some Phillip K. Dick. I cannot believe this is the same guy that Scanner Darkly came from. That movie was such a disorientated pile...however, he was also responsible for Minority Report, and The Imitator (?)...and one other story that I recognize as being the basis for a TV or movie. I really am enjoying this collection of short stories.

Also, I haven't written my creative writing assignment yet. I feel like I am just so behind on personal things. My letters are late, my stories aren't written, I am not posting as much as I would like too, the house is barely getting by, my social engagements are few and far between, ..sigh. I really need a good infusion of spring to blow away the dust from shoulders and get me motivated.

At least today is trying to be productive with breakfast, going through photos, a little correspondence -- and it's only 20 to 2. I still have a couple hours to make dinner, put dishes away, clean, package up a package, etc before I head over to Laima's to dye me some Easter Eggs the old fashioned way (with natural dyes and boiling of the water). It'll be nice to have a batch of hard boiled eggs around the house.

I'm also really into carbonated flavored water -- like Klarbrun (sp?) etc. It's just right.