It's been storming here pretty good for the past couple of hours. I had to run to the post office and it wasn't fun. Lightning and thunder were way too close for comfort! Now I see the county that I live in actually has a TORNADO WARNING!!! WTF! We don't get tornadoes here! That's just way too crazy!

The warning states: The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning for Passaic, Rockland, Northern Bergen counties until 5:15 p.m.

This storm is capable of producing quarter size hail and destructive straight line winds.

Although 5:15 is only 3 minutes away, so that seems silly. It was just updated at 4:57 according to the site: http://www.wnbc.com/news/17203064/detail.html?treets=ny&tml=ny_break&ts=T&tmi=ny_break_1_03510708152008. Weird that they'd issue a warning for such a short span. *** edit to add: Now they've extended it to 5:45pm. ***

I don't like the idea of a tornado coming through here. (Of course, who does!?) The only room in our entire house without a window is the upstairs bathroom and that's no good because you're supposed to go down to the lowest floor in the event of a tornado. Although most of hte windows in our house are so small. I really don't want to go to the basement though. I hate it down there and only go when I can't avoid laundry any longer. And the dogs won't go down there for anything. The stairs are too hard for them to go down. I'd have to take them outside and go around to go in the other door and even then they probably wouldn't want to go down there. Not that I blame them. I don't want to either. haha. Cheyenne's probably ok in the office as she likes hiding under the desk. Wonder if we could all fit under there. hehe.

Oh I had more good mail days today and yesterday. Yesterday my 2nd shipment from Bidz.com arrived. The knife is really very pretty! I think I'm going to keep it. Why? I don't know. haha. I'm not as thrilled with the ring that I got yesterday in comparison to the one I got the day before, but it's unique. And the earrings I got are awesome! Love them!! Today's mail included New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. I ordered it on Amazon.com a couple days ago. It got here really fast!

Oh and the other day did I mention the book my stepmom sent me? It's a Writer's Market book. I forget the exact title, but I could go look if I wasn't so lazy at the moment. hehe. She bought it for herself and then when she got home she realized that she already had it, so she sent it to me along with one of her recent articles that she had published. Neato! It looks like it has a lot of great information in it. Although I think it's a couple years old, so some of it may be outdated, but some of it is probably still good. Not bad for a free book.

My mom's been emailing me more old photos of ancestors that she's been getting from her aunt. I love them! I put one of my great-grandma up on Gather and plan to put more up this evening. I still need to do my two photo essays from the Ren-Faire as well. I just have so many pictures from that day that it's hard to decide which ones to use. I also want to do another book giveaway this month on Gather. Maybe I'll make the cash option after all? Nah, probably not. But no biggie. The gift cards come in very handy. Tomorrow Ron's off work so maybe we'll hit Home Depot and spend the ones I got sitting here. Hehe.

Today was an AWESOME mail day! Totally awesome, dude! hehe. I love when I get a bunch of fun stuff in the mail all at once. It makes it feel like Christmas! Hehe.

Today's haul included:

~ The first of my Bidz orders. (A very pretty heart necklace, a really cool silver and leather necklace and a really funky silver ring.) - I am beyond thrilled with all three of these items.

~ $125 in Home Depot gift cards (from Gather of course!)

~ A book I requested on Paperbackswap, The Loved Dog: The Playful, Nonaggressive Way to Teach Your Dog Good Behavior by Tamar Geller. (I had been on the waiting list for this one for a good long time. And it's a hardcover and in AMAZING shape!)

~ An Advance Uncorrected book to review for ijustfinished.com. Night's Master by Amanda Ashley (It sounds like a book that is right up my alley!)

This added to the tote that I got from Leo DiCaprio the other day and I've had a really great mail week so far! hehehe. Oh and yesterday I had gotten "30 Days of Night" from Netflix. We watched it last night and I wasn't overly impressed with it. I'm glad I never gave in to the urge to buy it whenever I saw it in the stores. Now I can send it back to Netflix and get another movie.

Not much going on here today. I'm really craving an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, so I might take a ride into town and get one. I could pick up some dog food too while I'm out. The girls have plenty for now, but I'll need to get some soon. So I might as well.

Next week on Wednesday I'm going to head to my mom's in the morning and then we're going to meet my sister, niece and nephew down at a mall that's about half-way between where she lives and where my mom lives. My mom always buys some clothes for the kiddos for the start of school. So I got invited along. YAY! I love seeing the kids and my sister too! We haven't decided yet if we'll hit Woodbridge Mall or Menlo Park. I guess it's up to my sis. I used to go to both of those malls back when I was going to Rutgers, but that's been a billion years now. It'll be fun to visit a different mall to see what they have. Rockaway gets so boring. That's why going to the Outlets is always a neat change of pace.

Well, I just talked to the Borders gal and I don't know whether to laugh or be completely insulted by the amount of money she offered me. She offered the position in Ramsey, but the hourly pay is so low I can't even imagine that it would cover the gas needed to get there! I could work at A&P as a cashier and make that much! She said she's going to contact the manager of that store and see if they'll come up any on pay, but she didn't think they'd be able to come up much. I am kind of hoping they don't bother to offer more because then I can turn it down without any regrets. As much as I think I'd enjoy working in a bookstore, I'm not going to do it for so little. She did remind me that they also give benefits and quarterly bonuses, but that can't be much to boost the pay. I don't need the benefits anyway since I'm on Ron's. So what good does it do me? None. AH well. I pretty much knew this was going to happen, but I was kind of hoping they'd offer a nice amount. Although really, I'm not disappointed. I feel kind of good that I at least was offered a job.

So that's that... back to the job hunting websites I go!

I'm now re-addicted to Bidz.com. I fully blame Kristen! She mentioned it the other day and last night I was on that damned site for hours. I now have a bunch of stuff coming to me! One thing is a knife. Don't ask. Haha. I didn't mean to bid on the knife exactly (although it is pretty with the jade and stuff on the handle). I kept getting outbid on other stuff by one person and I was annoyed so when I saw that they had bid on this knife, I went to bid against them in the hopes to make them pay more. Silly me. They didn't re-bid. So yeah, now it's mine. Hehe. I'm also getting a necklace, a pair of earrings, a quartz bracelet and a ring. This is the knife. I have no clue what to do with that. Maybe it'll be a good gift for someone for Christmas. hmm...

Tomorrow we're going to the Ren-Faire! Woo hoo! (well, as long as Mama Nature doesn't swoop in and ruin the day again!)

Ron's closing tonight so it's going to be interesting to see if we can get up early tomorrow to go. The weekly local paper was delivered today and they have the Ren-Faire on the front page. Wee. Makes me so excited to go! I can't wait to take lots of pictures with my camera.

I can't believe they ended "General Hospital" where they did last night! How rude. I hate waiting and now I must watch tonight! They got up to Ric asking Elizabeth on the stand, under oath, if she had sex with Jason. Then they panned over to Lucky's face in the audience and whoo boy. Tonight's episode should be a doozy.

Funny how I'm hooked back in to a soap opera. Now and then I'll catch an episode of "All My Children" or "One Life to Live" but neither of those two have recaptured my attention in the way that GH has. Guess it's all the hot men on GH that do it. haha.

Well, Ron ended up closing again Tuesday night AND last night. Who knows if he's working today and/or what hours he may be working. His hours change so much that I never know when I might see him next. I know he's working all weekend because he's going to miss my mom's birthday party. As usual he misses out on my family's events. Of course he rather often tends to miss his own family's events as well, so I know it isn't any specifically against mine.

I got my Bidz jewelry last night in the mail. Woo hoo. I'm wearing the one emerald ring right now. It's so dainty and pretty... so unlike me. haha. I love it! I love most of the stuff that I got, except the one pair of ruby earrings that I bought... I'm thinking of returning those. They seem just a little off from what they looked like in the photo. I had bought a total of 8 items. I wanted to wear the Gemini necklace today too, but I was running late this morning and didn't have time to fiddle with it. Tomorrow perhaps. I still have a goal of getting a bracelet. I don't know why or what I want, but I want a bracelet from Bidz. I think I'm just addicted. haha.

Next week I shall be training a new agent's staff. On Monday I'm meeting with two gals from another department that will be going with me on Thursday to show their side of things. And Thursday will be the training day. We're going to Howell, NJ. I haven't a clue as to where that is. I'm hoping like heck that one of the other two will volunteer to drive because I sure as shootin' don't wanna. ;-) haha

ho hum. Is it five yet??

Howdy doody peeps. What's up? Nuttin' much over here. I'm in a weirdly giddy mood today and I have no idea why. It's a Monday for heaven's sake and thus I should not be so perky and peppy. I shouldn't complain about it though. I'll just go with the flow, don't 'cha know? Yeah, see! What a weirdo I am today... and well, everyday.

I did one chapter of my Intermediate Excel course. Woo hoo. Go me. And I started reading Tonight and Always by Linda Lael Miller. So far so good. 75 pages into it and going strong.

Tonight will be another quiet night at home while Ron works again. Joy. Last night I watched "Forrest Gump". I love that movie. I haven't watched it in years, but I always enjoy it. On Saturday night I watched "The Princess Diaries: 2." As cheesy as the first, but not too awful. I also watched "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" that night too. Eh... I wasn't too thrilled with that movie.

I also caught up on my "General Hospital" yesterday. Love that marathon on SoapNet each Sunday. Oh and I caught the "Rescue Me" episode that I missed last week. Cool.

Tonight I think I shall try and watch one of my Netflix movies... probably "Walk the Line" because I know Ron won't care to see that and so I should keep the other movie for when he's around... whenever that may be.

Ron did add power steering fluid to my car and it seemed to fix the issue... at least for now. I had no trouble steering on my way to work this morning, so *knock on wood* hopefully this will hold it for a bit.

I've been good and haven't spent any more money on Bidz yet today. haha. You know what's really cool about that auction site? They permit you to resell their items on eBay or Yahoo auctions and give you the OK to use their photos and descriptions! Hmm... Might be a neat way to make some additional bucks here and there. Pick up some items at a good bargain and turn around and sell them for a profit. Sounds good to me! :-)

I can't wait for all my jewelry and lithographs to arrive. I hope they get here soon!

I'm trying to decide if I want to go to that Christmas Tree Shop up in Paramus after work. I want to go see if they still happen to have those garden mushroom guys for my mom's birthday. They're probably out, but they had tons of interesting garden figures the last time I went, so maybe I can find something else. At least it would be fun to wander around. I just hate the traffic up that way. It's a pain on normal nights so I imagine that a rainy Friday will make it worse. We'll see what my mood is at 5:00.

Oh! My Linda Lael Miller book arrived last night. Yippee! I'm so glad someone on PBS finally had it available to send to me!

I'm still Bidz-ing. Although I just want to find a pair of earrings and a bracelet and then I'm going to call at least a temporary end to my shopping days. While I haven't spent much on any one item, it adds up when you keep buying more and more stuff. haha. I can't wait until my first orders start to arrive!

I didn't read much at all today. I'm now up to only page 172. *sigh* Darn that Bidz site! At least Corey's been amusing me and keeping me from paying too much attention to it. She and I have been messaging via Pinger.com and our cell phones. She was cracking me up before lunch.

Here I am in purgatory again. Yeah, this week I get the joy of being in this sucky customer service room twice. Aren't I lucky? Ha. Not.

I really need help... I'm addicted beyond belief to that Bidz site. I can't help myself when I'm on there. I'm lucky though that at the moment all the ugly stuff seems to be coming up and so I haven't been overly tempted to bid. Yet I still managed to find 5 or 6 items to bid on! Eep. Yesterday I won an emerald necklace, an emerald ring and a limited edition, signed lithograph of a really pretty painting. Today I'm bidding on a second lithograph by the same artist because I just love the victorian style pictures that she does. I also have a bid on a pig necklace (but that one is clearly for my niece as part of her Christmas present!), and a few other things. There's this one emerald and opal necklace in the shape of a butterfly and I just really, really, really want it! I've seen it come up a few times now over the past three days and I keep getting outbid. I'm so tempted to bid more for it, but I don't want to spend that much money on things I don't truly need. I'd rather buy ten items at that price than one. Even though I LOVE it. haha. Right now I'm high bidder on it, but I refuse to go any higher so if someone outbids me, oh well. I'll try again another day. hehe

I didn't get to do much reading yesterday because we were supposed to have a bigwig stop in to visit our department. So I had my desk cleared of all non-work stuff and here she never showed up. grr. So I'm only 60 pages into Real Vampires Have Curves and I'm loving it. The main character is a hoot.

HO hum. I'm bored. I guess I'll check Bidz again and then get back to some reading. Yeah. Cool.

I'm at it again... I'm playing on Bidz.com and I've already won an emerald necklace ($8!) and I have a few more bids out there. Weee. This is too much fun. Between bids I've been reading a bit more of The Eyre Affair and that's going pretty well.

Last night Ron made a yummy dinner. He made macaroni salad and then on the grill he made bacon cheeseburgers. Mmm. So good. I love summer for no reason other than the fun of eating outdoors. haha. Ron's off today too and then I believe he works the next 7 NIGHTS in a row. Gotta love that, eh?

Oh looky... my sister has 2 new foster doggies... aren't they cute:




The gray one is Falco. He's 2 years old. The other one is Bella Luna and she's 1. She was a birthday gift for Falco. Isn't that cute? Their owner has cancer and can no longer care for these cuties. My sister says that they are so sweet and loving and just great dogs. I'm hoping she'll end up keeping these two as permanent members of the family, but as of right now they are "foster dogs". So we'll see. I'm half-tempted to take them in myself. Gee, Rogue would love that wouldn't she? hehe.

I've been bidding my heart out on different things and finally won one! It isn't exactly as pretty or exciting as some of the items I've been bidding on, but I'm just happy to have a winning bid on something/anything. hehe

Looky:




Oooh and I won another:

I am rather amused by The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's not always a giggle-fest type of read, but it is very entertaining. With character names like Thursday Next, Acheron Hades and Jack Schitt, and Officer "Spike" Stoker how can you not find some type of fun in the story? I didn't get to read as much of it yesterday as I wanted. We had a very time-consuming client come in and she took up an hour and a half of our time in purgatory. So right now I'm only up to page 151. I'd never say that this is the best book ever, but it is unique and a great enjoyment.

I've been playing on Bidz.com this morning. I want to buy something and I keep getting outbid. How rude. Of course I'm trying to get the jewelry really cheap and so of course I'll get outbid. I'm having fun though and that's what matters.