One of my favorite things in this world is a brand new book, but lately I've been making more of an effort to buy used ones instead. There are couple of reasons behind this choice. As much as I love the idea of a new book, I'm more comfortable purchasing a used one because I prefer reusing things, and some used books could very easily pass as brand new. It's also better financially, since used books are usually cheaper. Bonus? When I buy used books, more often than not I go through Abebooks which participates with iGive, so I'm saving money, reducing my use of brand new things, and helping DRNA a little at the same time. Win-win-win, if you ask me.
December 2008 Archives
(Note: What Child Is This is my most favorite Christmas carol ever, but I also love the rest of the list in no particular order)
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Angels We Have Heard On High
The First Noel
Silver Bells
I'll Be Home For Christmas
Silent Night
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
O, Holy Night
Winter Wonderland
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Two calls from two teenagers to ask if there was any of last night's bean soup left for lunch today resulted in two groans of disappointment when they learned that the last of it went with their dad for lunch. Guess that means the bean soup recipe passes muster.
- I got an A in my Network Security class! This brings my GPA up to a 3.854, which pleases my nerdly little heart to no end.
- three books I'm interested in (cooking, knitting, and crocheting) are available through the library. I'm trying to save money and space on my bookshelves by only buying books I know are "keepers," so I'm thrilled that I'll be able to check these books out and decide whether or not I want/need to own them.
- leftovers for lunch (chili!)
- I figured out how to add a clock to the taskbar on my work computer. I accidentally removed it sometime last year, and ever since, I've had to look at my phone (or a watch, when I remember to put one on) to tell what time it was, but not anymore!
My birthday was fantastic. We had dinner with friends on Saturday and then spent the rest of the evening playing Catchphrase and watching The Dark Knight. Just after midnight on Sunday Mike came bounding into our room to give me kisses and wish me happy birthday, which was the best way I can think of to have started off the day. The kids called later in the morning to wish me a happy birthday, and after spending most of the day in bed or just lazing about the house (broken up by a brief run to McDonald's for a birthday hamburger and Coke), we went to my parents' for a birthday celebration with them, my sister and her husband, and my brother and his girlfriend. It meant a lot to me that everyone was able to be there, and I had a great time. Afterwards we came home and watched the current episode of CSI: NY and finished the evening off with Excalibur. I truly couldn't have asked for a better birthday, and I'm excited about being 28.
Today was another unseasonably warm day (~65 degrees), and I'm still not crazy about it. I like pleasant weather as much as the next person, but this weather is not very Christmas-y, and I, for one, am ready for Christmas.
I don't write about things like this much because, unfortunately, it's not all that uncommon. People have dogs and don't treat them well. At all. I can't even IMAGINE keeping a pup outside all day, every day, in all weather, including the pouring rain we had a couple of days ago and the chilly weather we're having today, or stuck inside a cramped cage, forced to live in its own waste. And yet people do that all the time. Not just a few people, either. MANY of them think those are perfectly okay living conditions for dogs. And this mindset makes me furious. Those dogs deserve a warm, clean home and proper grooming. The fact that this particular fellow is a former animal control office who, one would presume, was responsible for removing animals from THOSE SAME KINDS OF SITUATIONS, makes it just a little more heartbreaking for me. I understand that not everyone's dogs are their babies like mine are, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated humanely.
I really hope those dogs get to keep their sweaters.
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." - C.S. Lewis
"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." - George Eliot
"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure." - Winston Churchill
"The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort." - Confucius
"Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die." - Stan Dale
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." - Charles Kingsley
Mike gave me my birthday/Christmas present early! I'm now the proud owner of a black classic iPod, and I love it. I don't have 120GB worth of music to put on it yet, but that will change soon enough.
It was ridiculously warm today, as in 60+ degrees! I'm not asking for a blizzard or anything, but I just don't think it's right to walk outside into a wall of humidity in December.
My physical therapist's name is Walter, which reminds me of Fringe and makes me chuckle whenever he comes to mind. Last night was my second appointment with him, and, apparently, things are Not Good. Long story short, my spine is rigid, my muscles are locked, and I have an extremely limited range of motion, none of which were the initial reason for the PT referral (rotator cuff problems). According to Walter (hee), tissue and muscles aren't supposed to hurt when you apply firm pressure, and yet that is definitely not the case with my muscles and tissue. It appears that this is a problem that has been years in the making (Mike is at this very moment saying "I told you so!" ... or at least thinking it), and it could take as long as 6 months of PT before I'm back to where I should be.
Last week saw me make the last payment to one of the big three medical bills I've been paying off for what feels like forever. By the end of the month I will have paid off the second, leaving me free to focus on the big one. Since I'll be able to put more towards it once the other two are finished, it will only take 9 payments after that before that bill is done too, and I can't tell you what a relief THAT will be.
We put our tree up on Saturday, which turned out to be great timing because it was snowing while we were hanging up our ornaments. There wasn't a lot of snow by, but it was pretty to watch it falling, and in the morning there was enough for a light dusting on cars and balconies. It was a perfect way to begin our Christmas season.
According to Typealyzer, this blog is an ESFP.
ESFP - The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.
They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.
Mike and I picked my car up last night, and my stats were just as anticipated. The upside to all of this is that my right front axle shouldn't need to be replaced for quite some time.
Erin reviewed A Career Girl's Guide To Becoming A Stepmom and is giving away a copy here. Step-parenting has its challenges, and this is definitely a book I'm interested in reading.
My car is in the shop to have a defective axle replaced. I raced to the auto parts store last night, getting there less than 10 minutes before they closed, to pick up a new axle (thankfully they come with a lifetime warranty) and get it to the shop so I could have my car fixed by this afternoon. I got a call this morning from the shop to tell me that the axle I picked up is also defective so I have to stop by the shop after work to pick up the first axle, take that back to the store for a refund and pick up another axle, then take that back to the shop so they can hopefully fix my car tomorrow.
Here are the projected stats for this week:
trips to the shop: 4
trips to the auto parts place: 3
axles purchased: 2
axles returned: 2
new axles that should have been good but weren't: 1
There are too many axles in this equation for my liking.
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We had the kids this year, and we all went to my parents' house to join them, one of my mom's co-workers, my grandparents, my brother, my sister, her husband, and his parents and brother for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone had a good time, and the food was fantastic. There was ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, a sweet potato dish, stuffing, olives, broccoli casserole, corn, salad, rolls, blueberry pie, apple pie, mincemeat pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie, and then I recreated a scaled-down version of the dinner on Sunday so we'd have our own batch of leftovers.
