Happy Thursday!  I’ve had a very productive morning, I think.  I emptied and filled the dishwasher.  I cleaned up some papers.  I filled out the paperwork for my doctor’s appointment this afternoon (it saves time while you’re there, but it takes forever to find all the info every time).  I also ordered contacts.  The lady on the phone needs to work on her service skills.  And I ordered makeup. 

I also should use today to get some other things done: finish laundry, vacuum, clean off the counters, etc. Oh…and I need to remember to put the trash out.  But before I do that, I have to clean out some of the leftovers in the refrigerator.  I should get to that. 

Today is definitely better than yesterday.  That’s always a good thing.  I’m making progress towards finding solutions to my various frustrations, which is also helpful.  You know…if the world just ran the way I think it should, it would be so much easier for me to handle!

I just talked to Deb on the phone for about an hour.  We had a lovely chat, and I even talked to Kelly before hanging up.  She’s getting much easier to understand on the phone.  She told me all the news: Holly is napping, Daddy is at work to buy money, they are staying home today.  They went grocery shopping yesterday, and Holly left her toys on the floor (one of them is a rhinocerus).  Also her birthday is Nov. 19 and she was very excited when I told her that I’d buy her a present for her birthday.  She promised to come to my birthday party next week, and bring her mom, dad, and Holly.  She’s pretty cute!

I’m frustrated today about classes, church stuff, lots of stuff. 
I won’t go into details because it wouldn’t edify any of you and I
doubt rehearsing my issues will help me resolve them.  But it’s
10:15 and I’m really annoyed.

I have to spend the next couple of hours trying to finish the grading I
have for my 2:00 class, so I can’t write much today.  By the way,
I did NOT get my ironing done (didn’t even try really).  And when
I went back to Lenscrafters with Eric’s sunglasses, I was told that the
real problem is that the frames are curved but his lens is very flat
(because of the Rx he needs).  So he’ll probably need to go back
in and pick a different frame.  Funny, but it seems like that
could’ve been mentioned when we were there the first time…but maybe
I’m just being silly!

Karen’s school district levy didn’t pass; I heard this on the news this
morning.  That won’t be good for them…they’re having trouble
getting by now!  But of course, they’ll still be expected to meet
the No Child Left Behind standards! Does that just make so much
sense…

Okay, on to grading, I guess…

I walked outside this morning.  It was cold, but it’s getting light earlier everyday, and I just couldn’t stay inside.  So I bundled up and walked in the neighborhood.  Only my nose was a little cold!

Today I have to take Eric’s sunglasses back to Lenscrafters.  The lenses aren’t fitting correctly into the frame (I don’t think you should see a gap between the lens and frame!).  So we’ll see what that requires.  I also think I’m going to go over to a Verizon store.  Eric’s contract finally ran out (mine had run out last spring), so we can now get a family plan of some sort.  We were going to go on Saturday while we were out getting his glasses, but the crowds (and crazy drivers) were getting to him, so we didn’t stop.  So hopefully we’ll find a plan that will work for us.  And…I can’t wait to get a new phone!  Mine is VERY old and I’ve been nursing it along until now.  So…that should be fun.

Other than that, I must grade today, and I think I’m going to try to finish the laundry (and ironing).  So I guess it’s not that exciting, but hey, it’ll keep me busy!

Okay, so a quick post for today.  The party last night went really
well.  I ended up only taking the fruit and the chocolate covered
stuff.  We actually did pretty well yesterday.  We usually
end up with phenomenally more food than anyone can eat, but we didn’t
have too much that looked barely touched.  It did sound like there
was going to be a lot of food, but I thought we had a good amount to
feed the 16 people who came.  And I purposely took fruit knowing
I’d have plenty to take home and enjoy myself!

Other than the Super Bowl party, it wasn’t that exciting of a
weekend.  Eric and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday
night.  On Saturday we went to the mall to buy Eric some new
glasses, and we also picked up a few other things while we wandered
around waiting for them to be finished.  Eric sort of let me be
the final say on the new style, and that was a lot of pressure. 
His new glasses look totally different than his old ones, but he looks
very trendy (without looking like a freak).  And Karen also
approved, so that just reinforced my decision.

Anyway, then I graded on Saturday afternoon, did laundry, made cookies,
and then we watched the CBS show about the last 30 years of Super Bowl
commercials.  I guess it wasn’t that exciting, but hey, it was
relaxing.

Oh, and in case anyone up here missed it…winter is finally here!

So it’s Sunday afternoon.  I decided to give myself a short break so here’s a post for Trisha to read in the morning.

I had a meeting after the music portion of the second service today, so we didn’t get home until almost 1:00.  I made tacos for dinner (quick and tasty) and then took a minute to read my favorite stuff in the paper and clip coupons.  Then I started on what I’m taking to the Super Bowl party tonight.  I’m taking cookies, fruit, and chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries.  I made one kind of cookie last night, but decided I’d wait until today to make the second kind.

Unfortunately, the second kind didn’t really turn out so well.  I made oatmeal scotchies, but I have had a lot of trouble recently getting any cookie with oats in them to turn out right.  So I ended up with a pile of crumbles rather than normal cookies…they tasted good, but I couldn’t exactly take them anywhere.  So I decided that one type of cookie and the other stuff will have to suffice.  Besides, we always end up with WAY too much food, so it’ll probably be fine!

Karen is hosting the party tonight for our small group.  It should be fun.  I’ll let you know tomorrow!   Anyway, I should probably go back to the kitchen and work on the cutting up the fruit. 

It’s Friday.  Apparently, it’s going to be ‘one of those days’
because this morning, I made Eric’s coffee without coffee
grounds.  Yep…just ran water through an empty filter.  I
guess that’s one amusing way to start the day!

I’m glad it’s Friday, but I’m not sure what the weekend is going to
look like.  I was hoping to get together with the fam (I haven’t
seen my neices in over a month!), but I don’t think that’s going to
happen after all.  Eric got invited to a housewarming party for a
coworker, but we probably won’t go to that…we did go to her last
get-together.  It was a very odd mix of people!  So maybe
we’ll go on a date tonight or something.  And I should do laundry
on Saturday.  And of course the Super Bowl on Sunday (and church!).

Classes today won’t be too exciting.  Both Comp classes are doing
presentations, so I don’t have to “teach” (I just pray they don’t do a
horrible job!).  Basic English is about the 4 types of sentences
today, and that’s a pretty easy one to cover.  So it shouldn’t be
too bad.  Of course, I have a rather large (and growing) stack of
papers to grade…still haven’t gotten that done!

It’s Thursday…oh, and it’s garbage day.  I’ll be right back. *long pause*  Okay, the garbage is out now.  I can continue.  (Look…I’m just like Kim now!).

So this morning, I have exercised, eaten breakfast, read all my email and responded and painted my nails.  Unfortunately, I did that before I took the garbage out, so now I’m going to have to re-do them.  Of course some of them are still really nice, but others are all chipped and dinged.  This is a problem because the nail polish remover needed to fix the damaged ones then gets on the good nails so they all need to be redone.  It’s a good thing my husband couldn’t care less about nail polish!

I have lots of other things to do today.  It’s now February and the budget is reset, so I will now permit myself to get some groceries.  And thankfully, I had enough milk to get me through breakfast this morning!  I also intend to clean my bedroom today, and I should grade (are you noticing that my to-do list this week is really just the same things over and over that I’m not actually getting to?).  Anyway, I think I want to go to Kroger and to Sam’s Club.  I really like just wandering around Sam’s.  It’s so fun to see what sorts of odd things they have and try to figure out exactly who would need such large packages of some of those products!   Of course, I don’t think most of their stuff is really a deal, but you can actually get good stuff at good prices (especially meat) if you are paying attention. 

One last thing…sent to me by my husband this morning.  Enjoy!

A couple goes on vacation to a fishing resort in northern Minnesota. The husband likes to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife likes to read. One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and continues to read her book.
 
Along comes a game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, “Good morning Ma’am.  What are you doing?” Reading a book,” she replies, (thinking, “Isn’t that obvious?”) 
 
 “You’re in a restricted fishing area,” he informs her. “I’m sorry officer, but I’m not fishing, I’m reading.”  “Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.”


“If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual assault,” says the woman. “But I haven’t even touched you,” says the game warden. “That’s true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.”


“Have a nice day ma’am”, and he left.


MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she can also think.

I felt like I worked all day and didn’t get anything much done.  I
kept working on a project only to find out later that I wasn’t going to
need it.  But because I spent the time on it, I didn’t get done
any of the other projects I had in mind to do.  And I had a
meeting with a lady from church that I left somewhat discouraged. 
However, I did go to Karen’s play last night and that’s always good for
a laugh.  In fact, my dad and I both thought that one girl flipped
some of the other actors off (she didn’t really, but the hand gesture
was a bit to reminiscent of it!).

I finally got my tax statement from CU.  Nothing like waiting
until exactly the last day of January to put it in my campus mailbox
(didn’t even mail it to my house, thank you very much) and since I
don’t come to campus on most Tuesdays or Thursdays, I didn’t get it
until today.  Oh well…at least now Eric can start crunching the
numbers…it’s a fun little adventure for him.

Now I’m in my office doing some last minute prep for my noon
class.  It won’t take long, but I do have other grading that I
could do.  We’ll see how ambitious I feel!

Oh….and I happened to catch the Oscar nominations on the Today show this morning.  What a joke those things are.  Let’s take the movies that somehow represent whatever agenda the Academy most prefers and give them an award which we’ll claim is for “good acting” or “good directing.”  Seriously, the only ones that could even possibly be legit are the ones for screenplay and adapted screenplay, simply because they would actually have to be well-written (even if the director modifies it before the filming ends).  Anyway, I like engaging culture and all that stuff, but sometimes I hate that our society functions on the assumption that I’m stupid!

I have a number of things to do today, but we’ll see what actually gets done.  I have some grading I should do, but there’s no rush on it, so I may not do that today.  I also want to clean my bedroom.  I’m tired of the clutter, and I’ll have to re-iron the pants that Eric piles up on the desk before I hang them up again.  He admitted last night that he could start hanging them up when he takes them off!  I do have a good bit of writing that I need to work on, too.  And I usually like to give myself at least one small errand out of the house just to liven up the day! 

I can’t believe that today is the last day of January.  That’s just crazy!  Still…being sorry that the days fly by doesn’t keep me from being glad that school is also moving that quickly!  My goal is always just to make it to Spring Break.  If I can manage that, then I can totally make it to the end because the second half is always faster (and has more breaks).  The first half is just long and unbroken.  So I guess we’re just that much closer to the halfway point.