I just wanted to prove to myself that I can update my LJ twice in one week. haha! Ok, that's it. Bye!

LOL!

Kidding. That's not all. Well, maybe it is. There's not much else to write. I am so tired but refuse to go to bed this early because I have tomorrow off. Normally I get Tuesdays off, but as there's no deliveries for the holiday tomorrow, my boss asked me to switch. I had no problem doing so since it's no big deal whether I get Tuesday or Wednesday off. Same diff pretty much. I shall be very happy to sleep in tomorrow. Then I'll work Thursday & Friday and have Saturday off. The week is broken up much nicer having Saturday off versus Sunday. I always thought it was so stupid to have Sunday off, work Monday, and then have Tuesday off, then work 4 days in a row.

Ron's been working tons of hours since one of the other managers quit a week or two ago. This means I barely see him since he gets stuck with all the night shifts. Although the other night my last store was in Franklin and his Wendy's is in the same parking lot. So I swung by for a free dinner. Yum! Unfortunately he was busy and wasn't able to talk more than a few minutes, but it was nice to see him. I think tomorrow he's actually working a day shift, which will really suck after closing tonight.

I got Blood Ties (season 1) on DVD from SwapaDVD.com. I wanted to watch it tonight, but it's Tuesday and I can't not watch my shows! So now I have something to look forward to tomorrow. I also got a bunch of books in the mail today too! Two of them to review for IJustFinished and 2 from PaperbackSwap. Yay for books! Now maybe I'll finally get some reading in. Not that I don't have a billion other books to read, but getting new ones is just exciting!

I'm watching Lopez Tonight. Funny!

Well, Rogue is looking to take a potty break. So I shall end here. Fun update, eh? A whole bunch of nothing! haha. But at least now we know that I can find my way to LJ again!

Ooh. I think I want this job that I just found on Monster. (Although I don't have actual experience in copywriting, so they may not even consider me... but this sounds pretty cool!)

( Here's the listing info )

Although the more I read the job description, I second guess my interest. I submitted my resume with a cover letter and I guess we'll see. I probably won't get a phone call or anything, but I had to love the part about dog owners getting strong consideration. hehe.


I talked to my mom and grandma earlier. My mom leaves MN tomorrow to return to NJ. Sounds like they've had a great week together. Wish I was there.

Last night Ron and I saw "Star Trek". I was a little afraid to see it and at the same time couldn't wait to see it. (Does that make sense?) I went in with little expectations as I hadn't allowed myself to read ANYTHING about the movie. All I knew going in was what was shown on the previews. So I'm very pleased with myself for not reading spoilers prior to going. It made it a wonderful experience. I can easily say that I LOVED the movie. It's definitely going to be one I'll get on Blu-Ray as soon as it's available. I actually want to go see it again in the theater! My crushes on Spock and McCoy have returned. hehe. Makes me want to watch all the Star Trek movies again! The funny thing about going to the movie yesterday was that we pretty much had a private showing. Other than Ron and me, there was only one other couple in the theater! Fortunately they weren't like those idiots that sit right in front of you even though the whole theater is empty. They sat a nice distance away and on the other side of the aisle, so it was easy to forget they were there. Anyway, good movie! Go see it! hehe. Ron's not even a Star Trek fan and he said he'd recommend it too. Now I want to go to Burger King and get the ST glasses! hehe.

Earlier this week I took the simulation test for that KGB site that answers questions through text. (Similar to ChaCha, but they charge for the questions). I passed! weee! So that'll be another site I can make a few pennies on each week.

I got a few books in this week from PaperBackSwap... along with the one book to review for IJustFinished. Oh and I got The Tails of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling for free by using my points on LiveSearchClub. Woo hoo. I wanted to read that, but didn't want to spend actual money on it, so when I saw it as one of the prizes on LSC, I had to get it. I got another $5 Amazon card from Swagbucks. I'm still trying to decide what I'm saving my Amazon certificates for. I'm thinking maybe a new lens for my camera. I'll have to research and see what's good, but I want another lens. Something fun. I don't know the first thing about them so I'll probably have to beg Corey to help me again. hehe. ;-) I'm sure I have a long way to go on getting enough to buy a lens, but I'd like to have a goal in mind so I can focus on earning.

You know what I've noticed lately.... not really in just one place, but all over. It seems like you can post a ton of goofy nonsense stuff, photos, etc. and those will get comments from tons of people, but then you post one thing that you'd really expect or want people to say something about and no one even looks at it. I'm not talking specifically here on LJ or any place in particular... it's just something I observed here, on Twitter, Gather, and various message boards and blogs (Not just my stuff either). It's funny in a way. Guess the fluff stuff draws more attention. It does amuse me though when I post something and really don't expect a response but I'll get a dozen. Then I'll post something and I'm SURE that people will say SOMETHING about it and nope... not a peep. Ah well. Silly peoples.

Ron's working a "half" day today because of all the extra time he's putting in. He's supposed to get off at 5:00, but I'll believe that when I see it. Not too much else going on around here. Just the usual. Oh, I know I mentioned the possibility of my unemployment being extended a bit longer. It's official. It has been extended. I can breathe again. Although I'd really like to find a steady income. No word back from the job I interviewed for last week. Although I see that on Thursday they had posted the ad again. I'm not heartbroken as I didn't quite feel comfy with that job.

Oh well, let me quit babbling and post this.

Live long and prosper! :-)

I haven't heard anything from my mom since she left the message that my grandpa passed away. I'm not sure how long she and my step-dad and his sister are going to be staying down in NC. A part of me wishes that I could have been down there with everyone to help out in any way. I sent my grandma a sympathy Peace Lily from Ron and me. I wish there was more I could do. But at least I hope she knows my thoughts are with her.

Not much else going on around here. Yesterday Ron and I needed to get the Neon's registration renewed and get it inspected. Didn't happen. We got stuck making various phone calls and dealing with other things around the house so we didn't leave as early as we wanted. Then we decided to try and find the Wayne inspection station, but even with the address, we couldn't find it at all. I have a feeling we passed by it a dozen times without seeing it. So then we went to go to the DMV on Route 23 to at least take care of he registration, only to find out they closed back in July of last year! Ughhh! So yeah, nothing got accomplished. On the way home we were stuck in rush hour traffic and Ron hates that. So we stopped to have dinner at Chili's to kill time. After that we wandered around BJ's for a bit and picked up a few items.

The roofing guy was out the other morning again, this time with a 2nd guy. The original guy kept trying to say the damage was from the upstairs pipes. No way, no how. Ron rationally explained how that was not possible in any way and the 2nd guy kept agreeing with Ron. They finally agreed that the roof and wood over the back porch was their issue and they'd fix that. There's a bit of a warp in one area and that's where the water seems to be coming in. So they'll come out Tuesday at 8 a.m. to redo the roof there. (Should be an all day project, fun!) However, they're not guaranteeing that they'll fix the interior. According to them once they get under the roof they'll see if that really is causing the water to get inside and damage the ceiling. If they think so at that point, then they'll contact their insurance to get an adjuster out there to do an estimate. So this could take ages to get that back room useable again! Ugh! The water damage is right near the ceiling fan and the other lights too. So we can't turn any light on out there for fear of what would happen if the water and the electricity have mixed. Such a pain. At least the roof part is fully covered so no money out of our pockets for that... Thanks to Home Depot's 10 year warranty. Although Ron did find out that the contractors they used to do our roof are no longer associated with Home Depot. Makes you wonder if they'd had problems before with their work. Hmmm!

Today is rather warm outside. I took the dogs for a nice long walk... until we ran into a loose dog. Yikes! He ran toward us and all I could think of was a possible dog fight or me getting dragged down the road. He was a gorgeous dog. Similar in coloring to Cheyenne. He had longer fur and if I had to guess I'd say he was probably German Shepherd/Collie mix. Maybe with some other breeds too, but that's what he reminded me of. He kind of looked like what Cheyenne would look like if she was 100 lbs heavier with longer hair. Anyway, he stopped near us and I saw that he had a collar and tags so I wasn't as worried that he might attack. I mean, sure, he still could have, but I feel a little better knowing that he has a home and isn't some wild dog wandering. Cheyenne growled at him and kept pulling to go toward him. Rogue kind of hung back near me. He stood and watched us and I tried to walk away. He followed for a bit. Then he peed and stood watching us walk away for a good while. I told him to "go home doggy" but he just stood there. He looked rather sweet when he wasn't running at me. Very pretty dog. I hope he did go home.

The dress I ordered from Shopthebay.com arrived today. Yay! It's even prettier than it looked on the site. I thought it was brown with flowers but it's actually black, which is even better. IT's not too often you can find a normally $174 dress for $20-ish. So now I need to get me some interviews so I can wear it.

Ron had to open today so he should be getting off of work soon, hopefully. His boss is letting him come in 2 hours late tomorrow to make up for all the extra time he put in last week. He had over 45 hours in just 3 days! So tomorrow he's closing but doesn't have to go in until 6. That'll be good because now we have to get the Neon registered and inspected tomorrow beore he goes to work.

Lately I've been finding some new shows to watch on TV. Actually they're shows that have been around for ages, but I've never watched them before. I've become hooked on "Cold Case" and "NCIS". (Of course I'm still hooked on other shows like "Psych" and "Monk" and "House" too.) OH and I'm really loving "Leverage". Christian Kane has the most beautiful eyes! Timothy Hutton's ain't half bad either.

I finished reading The Bastard by John Jakes last night. I need to get me the 2nd book in that series. I loved this one. I find myself really getting into historical fiction lately and wanting to read more, more, more! Although I've switched up genres for the moment and started reading Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead today.

I need more coffee, but Rogue's using my left leg as a pillow so I can't quite get up. I need a go-go-gadget arm to reach into the kitchen and fill my mug. haha.

Did I mention the Mochatinis that Ron made the other night? Those were sooooo good. Although I realized that I don't have any martini glasses. How sad is that? I have wine glasses in every size, juice glasses and various other crystal glasses, but no martini glasses. Must keep an eye out for a good deal. Not that I drink martinis often, but one should aways be prepared, right?

I want a new cell phone. Mine's 2 years old now and I can get a discount through Verizon to upgrade. But I want something cool! And even with the discount all of the cool phones are expensive. Although I'm getting closer and closer to the $100 paypal payment from Gather... so maybe I could use that to get a phone. Hmmm. I was thinking of saving my Gather payments up until I had enough to get Amazon Gift cards high enough to get the Kindle, but I've decided that I don't want that after all... or at least not now. I made a vow to myself that I won't even think of buying one of those until the number of books on my shelf that I haven't read yet has reached single digits. At this point I have over 200 books to be read. So it'll take a couple years to get through them all. So no Kindle for me. Besides, I would much rather have a fun phone. Although I shouldn't think of spending any money at all on non-necessities. But the mind likes to dream and it dreams expensively. haha.

Once again it's been awhile since I last updated my LJ with anything other than my Tweets from Twitter. As usual there's not too much exciting happening here in NJ. Just the usual stuff.

Let's see... Last Friday was the dinner at Sizzler's for Ron's mom's birthday. It was also to celebrate Jen & Sami's birthdays too. All told it was a fun night. Good food and fun conversation. I think Ron and I got home that night around 9:00.

Valentine's Day was Saturday and Ron had to work that night. Before he headed off to work we exchanged gifts. I gave him the hysterical Hoops & YoYo mug and a gift card for Starbucks. He gave me a heart-shaped box of Reese's clusters (yum!) and "The Dark Knight" on Blu-Ray. (I had a feeling that he'd get me that, but it's cool because it's the mask-shaped case that was only available through Target). Not the most romantic gifts, but what can you do on a limited budget?

Sunday I did minimal grocery shopping. Couldn't afford more than that, but we were out of bread and milk and other stuff, so it had to be done.

Ron worked Monday, but had Tuesday off. We didn't do much with the day at all. We did hit the bank and post office and that was probably the most excitement we had all day. ha-ha. Today Ron had to get up and leave at 5 a.m. to go pick up some coworkers and then head 2 hours away to some place in New York for a meeting. The meeting was supposed to end at 3:00 but went beyond that and then it took Ron over 5 hours to get home because of traffic and the weather! That totally sucks! He came home and has pretty much been asleep on the couch since he walked though the door. Poor guy. He's actually opening tomorrow too so he has another early morning to look forward to, but at least he has Friday off. However, on Friday he'll need to be up fairly early too because that's when the roofer is coming out.

My mom called tonight. They're home from the British Virgin Islands. Sounds like they had an amazing time and took tons of pictures. However, when they arrived home they found out that some time in the past 10 days their heat quit working! It was under 40 degrees in their house when they walked in! Yikes!!! Hopefully it hadn't been out too long and it's lucky that no pipes burst or anything.

Anyway, that's about all the fun stuff going on here. Watching lots of TV and reading a bit here and there. I'm now reading The Bastard by John Jakes. So far it's very interesting and pretty good. I'm probably going to want to find the 2nd book in the series when I finish this one.

We got a bit of snow today! Not as much as I'd like, but it's enough to make things pretty again.

I want to do something tomorrow to get out of the house, but I can't think of anything cheap to do when the weather is so cold. In one way I'm actually looking forward to warm weather so that I can at least head over to the park and hang out when I start to go stir crazy inside.

Oh I must admit I did splurge on something. I ordered a dress online the other day. But I definitely need something to wear for interviews, well if I ever get any. All the stuff I bought when I first got laid off is now too big and looks frumpy if I wear them. Not that I'm upset about that, not at all, but who wants to go to a job interview wearing a skirt that's 2 sizes too big? Not me. Anyway, this dress was originally $175!!! It was on clearance for $29.99 (!) and then I had a discount code for 15% off and free shipping! It was an awesome deal and will be well worth it to have a nice dress that fits. Of course I don't have any shoes to match, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For all I know by the time I ever get an interview anywhere, I'll be 70 years old and the dress will be way out of style. haha

La dee da... stuck here at home. No way out. Bummer. Stupid Mercury. Ah well, Ron's off tomorrow so at least I'll get out of the house then. I did get out of the house for a couple hours yesterday, but that was just to go to the gynecologist for my annual exam. Haven't had a real one of those in years, so it was time. I figured after all the pain of the past 2 months it was good to just get the check up out of the way. I was able to get there and back using the Neon before Ron had to go to work. I should have gotten up really early and headed out somewhere, anywhere for the morning. Didn't think about it though.

Tomorrow we're going over to Jeff's house to watch the Super Bowl. We have to bring sweets and beer. Fun! Ron and I also have to go to Sears tomorrow to get a piece for the downstairs toilet. It broke a couple days ago and it's so annoying to have to always go upstairs if I need to use the bathroom. Grr. So we'll get that part and hopefully that'll get this toilet running again.

Not too much else going on here. I got my Tina Turner CDs from Gather, my books from Amazon and Paperbackswap, so it's been a good mail week. I need to decide what I want to read next. So many choices!!

I got lazy the past couple months and didn't read much, but I'm off to a good start this year. Here's the books I've read so far this year...

January 2009:
1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
2. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
3. Stephanie's Menage by Mari Byrne
4. Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler
5. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
6. Dog Handling by Clare Naylor
7. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
8. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
9. Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell
10. Haunted New Jersey by Patricia A. Martinelli & Charles Stansfield, Jr.
11. Queen of Swords by Sara Donati
12. Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
13. R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

Total pages: 4998 (ooh, I should quickly read 2 more pages of something to break the 5000 mark. hehe)


I've been wandering around Twitter and finding some interesting people to follow! You wouldn't believe some of the big named folks that are on there! It's so neat!

I'm thinking about starting a book blog. Not really for any particular reason other than to practice book reviews and the like for my own use I guess. I'm sure I probably will slack off and won't even use it much, but it might be fun. I should just focus on using Gather for that and then I'd earn points, but I tend to like the novelty of a new spot to play. We'll see.

It's so cold outside today. The sun was out and it did nothing to warm you up. The wind and low temps beat out any effect the sun might have had. Brr. Speaking of which, I should take the dogs out. Fun times! Gotta bundle up good!

I just spent my Amazon gift certificates. I had the one from Stef and the 2 from Swagbucks and they're now depleted. Acually, I have like a dollar and a few pennies left that I'll save for some other time. Here's what I ordered... (Love those 4-for-3 deals!)

~ Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews
~ One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
~ Dark Prince by Christine Feehan
~ Honor's Splendour by Julie Garwood

I was tempted to use the gift certificates on mp3s, but then decided... nah, I need books. haa. Ok, I don't need books, but well, I want them very badly. I don't even know why since I have a couple hundred books still waiting to be read. One can never have enough books though. That's my motto and I'll never change. If only I could figure out a way to get paid to read. Then I'd be in my glory!

Not too much going on here. I've been playing on Gather. Corey was playing too last night and earlier today. I'm trying to get those points to jump up! I need to go somewhere and take a ton of pictures or I need to think up some stuff to post. Mostly I've just been commenting on all of Corey's pictures. That helped a lot that she posted a billion of them. haha.

Rogue's being such a cuddlebug today... and yesterday too. It's so cute. She keeps nudging the laptop off my lap so that she can use my legs as a pillow. Goofy dog.

My goal for this week is to finally rewrite my resume. My mom and stepdad keep bugging me to do it so that he can take it to his work. They're going to be hiring for an admin assistant position that he thinks would be good for me, since there'll be room to grow. Plus it's working for the government, which means awesome benefits and ALL holidays off and lots o' comp time. Pay's not as much as I was making at SF, but it's only 5k less and way more than what I was making on unemployment. Plus it's way way more than the nothing that I'm making now. Lol So it's an idea. I'm not sure it's what I really want, but it never hurts to check it out. Of course I have to get my butt in gear and get that resume redone. It shouldn't take me too long, so why do I keep putting it off? I'm just lazy. I think I just keep hoping that my dream job will pop up and then I'll get motivated. It's hard to be motivated when there's nothing you really want out there.

Ah well. Part of me just wants a no-thinking required job that's close to home instead of going for a "real" job. Yet I know in the long run that would just drive me nuts too. I seriously don't know how families and couples get by on one income. I guess maybe if Ron had a job that didn't pay crap, it would be possible. Lol And if we didn't live in NJ where the cost of everything and taxes are so high. Ron's pay in another state might actually be okay, but here its diddly squat. My pay was much more than his and even that I don't think would have been enough to live on by itself. Stupid money. I think we should go back to the barter system and do away with money all together. haha.

Wow. Can't believe it's Thursday. Where did this week go? It flew by in such a flash and yet I have nothing really to show for it. My resolutions for the year have mostly already been forgotten. haha I haven't touched my resume to fix it up yet. I have only applied to like 3 jobs so far this week. However, I have gotten up off my fat bum and jumped back on the Wii Fit. I am back into the 1 hour / 5 days per week plan. I just use Ron's days off as my 2 days off from the Fit. So far, so good!

Monday Ron had off and we went to the bank. Then we were going to go to Wal-Mart but for some unknown reason Ron got into the wrong lane on 287 and missed the exit. He has no clue what he was thinking. In the end we went over to K-Mart instead. There aren't many K-Marts left around here and that one isn't really "around here" but as we were on the highway going nowhere, we figured we'd go instead of turning around to go back to Wal-Mart. They had some amazing sales! I so wish we had the money to really shop and not just get necessities. Their entire shoe department was on clearance as they make room for all new stock. (We both ended up getting some very comfy slippers that were normally like $15 for five bucks each!) Women's Route 66 jeans were 60% off! (I got one pair.) ALL the Men's department was 50% off! Seriously! Ron ended up getting some long underwear bottoms and I picked up 2 turtlenecks. (I only buy men's turtlenecks these days because women's have short arms and don't reach all the way to my wrist.) With those few purchases and our needed stuff, it was really cheap!

Tuesday night Ron closed and around 3:30 a.m. or so he called and told me that he was stuck 2 blocks away. He couldn't get up or down the street because they had not sanded and it had been icing for hours! I had issues with taking the dogs outside. I was sliding all over, as were they. About 15 minutes later, Ron finally peeked in the doorway and asked for help. He'd managed to get the car almost to our driveway. I don't know what he thought *I* could do to help. I couldn't even get down the steps to the driveway, let alone get out to the road! It was slipperier than an ice skating rink! We used up all the salt we had left trying to clean an area so he could get the car off the road. At one point I finally made it down to the street and slid like 20 feet! I slid right past the car and kept on going! I don't know how I didn't fall on my butt! Somehow I stayed upright, but then had another problem... how was I going to get back up the street to my house? Ron had to inch and slide his way over to me to help me back. Each time I tried to take a step, I started sliding downward again. It would have been rather funny and amusing if it hadn't been after 5 a.m. by that point. Finally Ron did get the Neon almost into the driveway. A bit of its rear end was still in the street. I thought for sure he was going to slam into the rock wall at one point. That's all we would have needed, eh?

Yesterday Ron took the dogs to the vet. Cheyenne had been limping for a couple days and we couldn't figure out why. And then yesterday in the wee hours, Ron found a tick on Rogue. Didn't even know ticks were still around in the cold weather! Gives me the creepy crawlies though. I had such a painful ache in my back yesterday that Ron told me to stay home and he went to the vet alone. What a guy. Over $500 later, the girls came home with medication, shots, etc. Lovely. First my med bills, now doggy med bills. And the vet couldn't figure out why Cheyenne is limping. Nothing was spotted on the x-rays. He did some blood tests and we should hear back tomorrow on those. Rogue's got an ear infection. Poor pup. Her ears are very prone to those. And she hates us having to put the medication in her ears. Fun times! We also have to wash the area where the tick was 3 times a day with Hydrogen Peroxide and then put neosporin on the area as well. I get the fun of doing all this because Ron's working working working. Bummer. Cheyenne has a pain pill to take 3 times a day. Poor pups.

Today was a good mail day! My Amazon order arrived. So now I have Plum Spooky to read, "Serenity" to watch and the Book Lover's calendar for each day. Yay! I also got the 3rd season of "Forever Knight" and "Mrs. Brown" on DVD that I'd requested on SwapADVD.com. Oh and the free Tivo cookie cutter was in the mail too! And of course a doctor's bill. I'm getting lots of bills but no explanation of benefits yet. It's annoying! Not that I want to pay the bills, but I'd like to know how much of them I need to pay! Oh and my "Mamma Mia!" DVD that I won on Gather arrived today too.

Yesterday the weather was all icy again. There's so much ice out there. Limbs and branches and huge chunks of ice keep falling all over the place. It's so hard to sleep at night with the constant crash of things landing on the roof. Not to mention how dangerous it is to take the dogs outside. I'm constantly afraid that a limb will land on my head or worse, on one of the dogs.

I've been a big procrastinator again this week. I had 3 books to write reviews for and vowed to do it the other day. Well, I did one. I guess that's a start, but I really need to get my fingers typing up those other two. Plus I've really got to get to work on my resume as well. I've been very bad and haven't tweaked it at all. I know I can make it look and sound much more professional, but I just keep putting it off. Ah well.

I had a dream last night that I wrote a book. Wish I could remember what the book was about, but I just remember that I was at a Borders or something signing my books and the strangest people were coming up to me to tell me they liked it. It was odd, but kind of neat too. My dreams have been very vivid lately. I keep waking up with them fully in mind, but they slip away within a couple hours of waking. I just remember that they've all been so weird! Not nightmares or anything bad, just very strange.

Ron had to open today so he should be home somewhat soon, I'd guess. Tomorrow he's on a mid-shift and then he closes Saturday and Sunday. I'm not sure what he's working next week. Hopefully better hours than this one.

Now that the heat's back, I'm starting to feel like I may thaw out sometime soon. Ok, so the heat went back on yesterday afternoon, but it's so cold out that I just can't seem to get warm again. Thursday night was awful without the heat. We put he propane heater in the basement to try and keep the temperature above freezing. Didn't want any pipes to burst. That would have been just our luck, right? We had the little electric heater here in the living room, which just barely kept the chill out of the air if you were sitting ON it. haha. It was so chilly! I tried to sleep down here on the couch, but I could not get comfortable. Ron never has that problem so he slept off and on. I ended up grabbing my snuggie-like blanket and headed up to bed around 5 a.m. I then wrapped myself in all the blankets I could find. I woke up off and on throughout the wee hours of the morning and would re-wrap myself when the blankets would unwrap. It was not a good night of sleep, that's for sure. 50 degrees is not good when it's inside and you're trying to sleep!

When Ron called on New Year's day they said that someone would contact us that day to let us know when we could expect someone to be out here. No one ever called back and when Ron checked in a 2nd time they pretty much gave him attitude and said that they already had the call and we had to be patient. Yesterday morning he called again at 8 a.m. and was once more told that they had the call scheduled and we should see someone within 4 to 6 hours. Finally around 1:15 Ron called again just to see if we could get an idea of when to expect someone. They told him that the guy had just finished the previous job and was on his way. Phew. He arrived around 1:30-ish and was here for a good hour. I played outside with the dogs the whole time to keep them from barking at all the pounding noises in the basement. Plus it wasn't any colder outside than it was inside at that point.

Anyway, so we got heat back! Yahooo!!! Turns out something in the furnace was clogged up and causing all the smoke. It was cleaned and fixed. Yippeee! Ron was told that our furnace will need a "tune up" in the Spring most likely, but otherwise is now running well. That's good to know.

It was a quiet night here last night. Ron hadn't sleep really well either the night before as he kept worrying about the pipes and wondering if someone would ever show up. He ended up making pepper steak, steak fries and corn on the cob for dinner. Yum! And then he dozed for some time. When he woke up he challenged me to some Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and we played for hours! He and I are pretty well matched in that game. I win some, he wins some. It's fun though. I should look up some secret moves and such before he gets home from work tonight so I can impress him with my skills in game playing. haha. He's closing tonight so I guess now that the holidays are over, life is back to "normal". I'm taking today and tomorrow as a restful weekend and then starting Monday I'm going to focus on my resume and job hunting in a more serious way than I have in the past. At least that's my plan. I'm lazy though so who knows if I'll get down to it, but I need to do so.

I used my $50 Amazon certificate today to pre-order Janet Evanovich's Plum Spooky and also ordered "Serenity" on Blu-Ray and a Book Lover's page-a-day calendar. I had one of those calendars last year from my sister and thought it was really neat! I discovered some new and interesting titles from it. That's why I'd like one for 2009.

I finished reading Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer today. I don't know of another book that I liked and yet had a character that annoys me so much. Bella made me want to slap her senseless in this book. I really dislike her and don't know why I keep reading the books when she irks me so. I guess because I love all the characters around her and like to see what's happening with them.

Now I'm reading The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D. I just started it so I haven't gotten far enough yet to know if it's a worthwhile read, but I'm sure it'll have some information that'll come in handy.

I've got 3 book reviews I need to write and I keep putting them off. Shame on me! I really need to stop the procrastination and just write them! One of the books I adored! One I really liked and the third was okay. So it's not like I have to write negative reviews. I just need to get my fingers in gear and do it. Maybe I'll make something for dinner first and then settle in to write them. (Yep, there I go again... procrastinating... but I am hungry so it's a logical reason, right?)

Ok... food first... then reviews. Nothing in between. Gotta do it. hehe.

Ron's vacation is officially over. He had to go back to work today (closing). His time off went very quickly! Although to be honest, I was a little happy to have him back at work tonight. I like my 'me time' and I had very little of that when he was home. I did hate the fact that he had to take my car to work tonight so I was stuck home. I didn't really have anywhere I wanted to go so it's not like it was a big deal. I just don't like being unable to go somewhere if the mood strikes.

It was an interesting weekend. Friday we got a ton of snow. Close to a foot I'd venture to guess. It came down pretty messily and the plow never went through until late at night. It took Dave 2 1/2 hours to get home from work and took Steph over 3 hours. They only work 45 minutes away! Roads were awful! Ron and I knew better than to even bother trying to go anywhere.

My parents and grandma were supposed to come up Saturday, but with the weather we decided to postpone it until Sunday. Ron and I spent quite a bit of Saturday shoveling. We also finished re-arranging the living room and I have to say that I love the way the furniture is positioned now.

Sunday we got a few more inches of snow and once again had to shovel. Fortunately the town actually cleared the road pretty well that day. Shockingly enough. The sun also peeked out for a little while. So my folks and grandma were able to make it up for dinner. They saw a horrible accident on the way up here though. Thank heavens it wasn't them. It could have been if they had left a few moments earlier. Anyway, dinner was good. Ron made two turkey breasts (one with his famous sauce and one plain in case someone didn't like the sauce). There were lots of yummy goodies too. It was nice having the family here.

Yesterday I had to go to the lab and get stabbed one more time. Then Ron and I went to Target and we were able to pick up the items that Ron had accidentally left behind last week. It was easier to do so than we'd expected.

From Target we headed to the mall so that I could get a hair cut. I would have done that today, but no car. Ron wandered around the mall to try and find a Christmas present for me. (Yeah, he hadn't thought about getting one prior to that moment. Grr. Or he claims he just hasn't had the time to pick up what he wanted to get me. Sure.) He couldn't find anything in the mall supposedly even though I dropped hints that there were tons of jewelry stores in the mall. haha. So we then went to go over to Target and that was a battle and a half. The parking lot was horrible. Took us an hour just to fully get into the lot. And we never could figure out why because there were plenty of parking spots open. I was trying to find some winter boots too, but found none worthwhile at the mall and none at Target. Ron couldn't find anything he wanted to get me at Target either, so we then had to go to Wal-Mart.

I found warm boots at Wal-Mart. In fact I found 3 pairs I liked, but only got one pair of really toasty ones. Ron found what he wanted to buy me, so I wandered elsewhere so he could pick it up. I'm pretty sure I know what it is, and while I will like it, I just wish that Ron would get more original and put thought into a gift instead of just grabbing what he sees that I've mentioned wanting. Ah well.

So tonight he's working and I'm home alone with the dogs. I dyed my hair earlier and I wrapped Ron's present. I also took care of other odds and ends around here. I still have to make my fruit salad to bring to my mom's tomorrow. I figure I'll do that once "A Christmas Carol" is over.

Tomorrow Ron is working 11-8 so I have to drop him off at work and then head to my mom's. It really sucks that Ron has to work. It will be nice to see family and open presents and such, but it's a pain that Ron won't get to share the day. On Christmas day we're going over to Ron's brother's. We might go to a movie later on, but who knows. OH and Ron somehow got the day after Christmas off so we'll get to enjoy that day together.

I had a good mail day today. I got a $10 Starbucks gift card from SpotWinner and a CD & DVD from One2One Network. And the big surprise was Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer from Corey! Thanks so much Corey! I can't wait to read it.

Who knows when (or even IF) we'll get the Neon back. It sounds like the mechanic won't even be able to look at it until next week at the earliest. So I'm probably going to be STUCK home quite a bit. Bummer.

I think that's about all the news that's fit to print. haha.

I doubt I'll be around much for the next couple of days, so Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! And Merry Yule, Hanukkah, or Whatever-You-Celebrate to everyone else!

It's another icky, rainy day. Well, I guess it's night now. But it as icky and rainy all day and all night too. Blech! The dogs get so rambunctious when it's yucky outside. Crazy mutts. Ah well. I think tomorrow's going to be more of the same too. As was yesterday. Ugh. Go away rain!

Not too much going on here. Just the same ol' stuff. Been trying to do a bit of ChaCha each night. Although lately it's been bugging me and I'm sure I'm going to completely bore of it in time. Ah well. All the little pennies add up and will come in handy for as long as I keep doing it. I need to get my butt back in gear on Gather. I think I'd make better money there if I wasn't so lazy. LOL

I applied for 2 jobs through Career Builder tonight and one through Monster. I'm sure I won't hear a peep from any of them. Although one was in the insurance business. It was actually for a Part Time job, but it was a telecommuting job, so I wouldn't mind working 20-30 hours per week from HOME. Although it did say that a couple times a month the person would need to drive to Central or North Jersey for hearings or some such. (well, I *am* North Jersey, so that's fine with me. And only a couple times a month? Central ain't too bad then.) The pay looked pretty awesome for part time too! If I did the 30 hours per week and at the top of the pay scale given, it would be more than unemployment is paying. So I think that would be good, especially since my unemployment completely ends in a few weeks. Yikes! I am not getting my hopes up, because I'm sure no one will bother to contact me. The other two job were full time... one in communications and one for a local newspaper. Being that I have no experience in either spot, I'm not holding my breath for a phone call.

I think my doggies are hearing things. They both just ran to the door and started getting all excited. I have no clue why since Ron won't be home for another hour or so. At least he does have tomorrow off. Or I guess I could say today technically. I don't know what we have planned for the day, but hopefully we can at least go out and about for a bit. I'm tired of staring at the walls.

I still haven't written my book review for Gather. Bad me. I did write the one for SRR, but haven't written the 2nd yet. I must make it a vow to do those on Sunday. (I'd say tomorrow, but I doubt I'd focus enough while Ron's home.)

Right now I'm reading A Three Dog Life: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas. So far it's good, but totally not what I expected. I must admit that I requested it on pbs just based on the title and the picture on the front and didn't even read the description. Silly me. It is very interesting though. Short too so I should finish it rather quickly.

I've been playing with my Kaboodle wish list lately. I'm sure my mom and Ron's mom will be asking for my Christmas list soon enough. So I'm just going to send them the link to my Kaboodle. Hehe. Makes it much easier on me. I keep it updated all the time. But there were a few things on the list that I don't remember ever wanting. LOL So I removed those. I should glance over my Amazon wish list too. I don't think I've done that in awhile and probably have books on there that I've already picked up.

Well, I think I'm going to go make some coffee and then get back to reading a bit before Ron gets home. Fun times, eh?

Just some random stuff:

* It's been a pretty good week over all. I got the mp3 player in the mail that I won on Gather for my Furs Chapter photo essay of Cheyenne. I'm not sure what I'll do with it since I do already have an iPod. Perhaps it'll be a good Christmas gift for someone. Who knows.

* I won a "support our troops" rubber bracelet on MCC this week. Yay!

* No checks yet from unemployment, but I was able to put through my filing today so that's a good sign that things are in the works. I'm thinking the checks should arrive tomorrow.

* Tomorrow Ron has off so we're going to try to fulfill our plans from the other day that he was supposed to have off. That means we're going to head up to the Christmas Tree Shop and wander around Paramus to see what else is around.

* I'm forgetting half the stuff that I wanted to mention. Oh well.

* Still no word back from ChaCha and it's ticking me off. They say that you get a response to your test within 24-48 hours and it's been since Sunday. I've checked the forums and some people are getting results within hours and others are like me and have been waiting a long time. So I don't know what to think. Is taking a long time on their end a good sign or a bad one? I just want to hear back. Grr. Oh well. I'll stick with mturk for now and make a few pennies that way.

* Did another hour on the Wii Fit today (and yesterday too). It's getting easier to reach the hour without thinking "I just want to stop!"

* I'm reading Valerie Bertinelli's book. So far it's pretty good.

* Think I might pop in a movie tonight. I have three from Netflix that have been waiting patiently for me to view them. One of them is the Lost Boys sequel. I've been dying to see it, but half afraid that it's going to suck so bad that it'll annoy me. So I keep putting off watching it.

* Still no job offers rolling in and I've continued to apply all over. Although I'm at the point where I'm starting to wonder if I could make a good enough salary just off the various sites I visit if I really put forth an effort. Haha. Probably not, but I'm getting so spoiled with not having to commute to work, that I really am going to not want to have to actually leave the house to go to work when a job finally comes my way.

* I still can't remember what else I wanted to update about.

* Got a few more books in the mail that I'd requested from paperbackswap. Also have one that I need to send out tomorrow.

* I'm kind of in the mood to watch all the "True Blood" episodes again. Make it a marathon night and watch all five back to back. That could be fun. haha

* Gotta take the dogs out. So I'll end this here. Bye-bye!

Oh my gosh! I was just going to post my monthly book list of the books I read last month (September) and I'm in shock. I must not have been feeling well or something because I only read 4 books!

1. Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish by Mark R. Levin
2. Hex Appeal by Linda Wisdom
3. What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges
4. You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

Only 1217 pages!

Man, now I'm going to need to put forth some major effort in October to get a ton of reading done. I can't believe only 4 books in the month of September. How sad is that?

Ah well. Not too much going on here. I did an hour on the Wii Fit today (and yesterday too!) I'm getting better at not giving up after 45-50 minutes and I press on to the 60 minutes! YAY me.

Ho hum. Yeah, so much excitement that I can hardly contain it. haha. Well, need to take the mutts out shortly so I'll end this here.

Life ain't all that exciting 'round these parts. Just the same ol' stuff going on. Ron had Monday and Tuesday off, so that was nice. We didn't do anything exciting really. We did do quite a bit of yard work though. Well, I must admit it was mostly Ron. On Monday he was chipping up some of the branches and stuff that he'd cut down and I was keeping an eye on the dogs. I was playing fetch with Rogue and at one point my leg was on the wrong side of her lead. She took off after the ball and the plastic wrapped wire lead got tangled on my ankle. It cut pretty deep into my ankle and my ankle went one way and I went the other. Talk about pain! It's happened before, but usually I get both legs tangled which tends to distribute the pain to both legs at a lesser rate. This time it was just the left ankle and man oh man did it hurt. I hobbled inside to get ice and sat down for awhile. It was still killing me yesterday. Today it was starting to feel a bit more normal, so I did my Wii Fit workout that I'd skipped the past two days. I'm thinking that I overdid it and/or probably shouldn't have done it at all today. I felt the pain while doing the Fit, but I pushed through and did 45 minutes of exercises. Now I'm in great pain. *I* feel great, but my ankle is yelling at me for being a putz. Oh well. Guess it's time for more ice. haha.

Monday night Ron and I went to the diner for dinner. It was yummy, as usual. We also watched "I Am Legend" on Blu-Ray. I'm shocked to say that I liked the movie a billion times more than I liked the book. I wasn't too impressed with the book, but the movie was good. Of course I kept noting all the differences between the two. Will Smith was just plain awesome in that film. Ron enjoyed it too.

Yesterday was more yardwork. I helped by gathering up sticks and twigs and branches from around the yard and carried them to Ron so he could chip them up in his chipper. I must say parts of our yard are starting to look good! Ron has it in his head now that in the back right corner of our yard he wants to build a Japanese garden. I don't know why or where the thought came from, but he wants to do it. I doubt it'll ever happen. We have a ton more clearing out to do and our yard isn't exactly level. So who knows. He wants to put in either a Koi pond or a big fountain to go with the garden. Sounds neat, but I still doubt it'll happen. haha

The silly man should be home from work shortly. He had opening shift today and also has it tomorrow and Friday. Then he closes Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. He might be closing Wednesday too, but I forget. I just know he's got a long stretch of working without a day off. Better him than me! haha.

Still no opportunities on the job front. Still no payment from unemployment. They won't do anything for me until after my interview on the 29th. Jerks. So now I get to go a lovely 4 weeks with no income at all. Yikes! Not a good time for this to happen. It's not like we're going to have to sell the house or anything, but it's going to hurt. I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting the back-pay for these weeks once I get the interview, but it's that wait in between which will make it a pain in the butt.

Today I hit the post office to mail off a book that was requested on pbs. Then I stopped at the bank to put in a check that I'd received from one of my survey sites. Not a big amount, but at this point every bit helps! I need to get to posting more photos on Gather to get some big points rolling! Friday's the last day of the promo so I've got to take advantage of it. I also hit Dunkin Donuts today for an iced coffee. Yeah, that was a splurge I really didn't need, but the bank is right across the street and I heard the coffee calling to me and so I couldn't avoid it. I have no willpower when it comes to coffee (or just about anything really. haha)

ow ow ow. Just moved my ankle wrong and the pain went right up the leg. Not good. Oh well. In good news, I am down another pound since I started my Wii Fit workouts! Of course that's not a big deal, but it makes me happy. I can't thank B enough for picking up the Fit for me! (BTW, B, the check is in the mail. hehe. Truly it is!)

The weather is odd today! I was outside this morning with the dogs and it looked and felt like a normal summer day... warm and sunny. Then I did my errands and came back home. I did my Wii workout and then decided to take the dogs back out for their afternoon exercise. I could see out the window that the sun was bright and shining. I got the girls ready to go and then I glanced out the front screen door and heard what sounded like rain. I stepped outside and it was pouring! The sun was as big and bright as ever and yet it was thundering and pouring down rain! So odd. Cheyenne hates thunder so she did not want to go outside at that point. I still took them out back and walked them around a bit because I wanted them to get some more exercise. Rogue doesn't care what the weather is. She's willing to play in any temperature, any precipitation, anything. Nothing stops her. So she ran around while Cheyenne just kept trying to head back to the door. We didn't say out too long because we all got soaked, but at least they had a few more minutes of fresh air. I'll take them back out in a few if the weather cooperates.

I need to get to writing a review of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom. I really liked that book! I started on the 2nd book in the series too, but I didn't go too far because I want to write the review of #1 before I get too into #2 and have the lines blur between the stories. I'm just too lazy to write the review today. Maybe tomorrow. There's no rush as they told me they just wanted the reviews by October. So plenty of time to do both books.

Not much else going on here. Isn't my life so exciting? haha.

In the "Ooooh" portion of this post... I got great mail today! I got two books to review for IJustFinished.com. YAY! Two by the same author and it's an author I've never read before, so I'm doubly excited. The books are 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover and Hex Appeal by Linda Wisdom. They look like they're going to be such fun reads! I'll have to hurry and finish A Pedigree to Die For by Laurien Berenson so that I can get to those right away. Not that I need to rush to read them. I have plenty of time to do the reviews, but they look so good that I want to start immediately. Hopefully they're as good as they sound. ;-)

Now for the "Grrrr" portion of this post... I got awful mail today! I got a notice from Unemployment that I won't get any more payments until I have an over-the-phone interview. And get this... the date for that interview isn't until September 29th!!!!!!!!!! How can they make me wait that long?! This is ridiculous! I'm still going to call on Tuesday and see if there's something that can be done about this. Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Ron's getting ready for work and will be heading out shortly. We were outside all afternoon with the doggies and talked to Dave and Steph for a bit. Cool beans.

Once Ron leaves I'm going to have some Wii Fit fun! :-) I could start now, but I just don't feel like having watchful eyeballs on me. Haha. It's ok if the dogs watch, because they can't laugh at me. Well, maybe they can, but I can ignore doggy looks more than I can ignore Ron's chuckling.

Ron has Monday and Tuesday off. I'm shocked that he got the holiday off! He has to close tonight and tomorrow though. And then he has to work like 7 or 8 days straight without a day off. That's a bummer. But at least we'll have Monday and Tuesday to enjoy.

I'm actually rather sleepy and it's only 10:20. Something weird going on. But it's a good thing since I have to get up early early tomorrow to head down to my mom's. From there we're going down to Woodbridge mall to meet my sister, niece and nephew. I can't wait, but I don't really want to get up so early! Wahh... Oh well, I'll live. Haha.

Sunday night the weather cooperated and so Ron and I picked up a pizza and went to the drive-in. We saw "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "The Dark Knight." Yep, we had seen that 2nd one already, but as a freebie double feature, it was worth seeing it again. SW:tCW was pretty good too! I wasn't sure what I'd think of it. I thought it would be cheesy as an animated movie, but it wasn't half bad. Not as great as the live action movies, but it was fun to see anyway. I'm pretty sure we'll buy it on DVD when it comes out.

I didn't do too much yesterday. I had to hit the post office to ship off a couple books that were requested on pbs. Other than that I spent the day playing with the dogs and poking around Gather here and there. They have a great photo promotion going on this week, but don't it figure... tonight they have maintenance! So it's going to be down all night! I'm a little annoyed because I wanted to post a ton of pics tonight. Grrr. But anyone who is on Gather, if you post pics this week and tag them "summerpics" you get 10 points per picture! Plus the top 10 rated photos will be entered into a drawing to win a digital camera. I don't care much about that at all, I just want the points! Hehe. I was going to post a photo essay with odds and ends from the ren-faire, but now I think I'll post all the remaining pics individually. Hehe. I did do the two photo essays (one for the Birds of Prey show and one for Dextre Tripp) so the rest can all go one by one, I think. Sometimes it takes too long and too much effort to put them into an essay. We'll see. Not that I can do anything tonight while the darn site is down. Grrrrrrr. I think they should extend the promo to go all weekend too!

Oh I remember what I did yesterday too... I did my review for Ijustfinished.com. So once that was posted, I emailed the gal and requested another book to review. Yippee. She said she'd get one right out to me. So we'll see what book I get next. I love free books!

I haven't read too much of New Moon yet, but maybe this weekend I'll get to it. Today Ron and I went to get our hairs cut. :-) Hehe. Mine ended up getting a bit more chopped than I had planned. I wanted a trim basically, but something with more style that it had at the moment. The gal that cut my hair was at least 100 years old! Seriously. Ok, maybe 70, but no younger. I love how she did the top and sides, but I think she should have cut more off the back to even it up a bit. Now the back just seems a little odd.

After our haircuts, we hit Target and Wal-Mart. We picked up a few items at each place and then came home to play outside with the doggies until it was too dark to see. Ron made a delicious chicken dinner and now I'm rather full. He's playing some demo game on the PS3. Fun times! I was Gathering until the site went bye-bye for maintenance. I have a ton and a half of comments to catch up on. Sometimes I hate when people comment on my stuff because I feel obligated to return the favor one for one at least. Ah well. At least this should jump my points up quite a bit. I'm almost to the $50 gift card level again. Hehe.

Oh well. Think it's time to relax and unwind and get a good night's sleep tonight so I can be all set and ready to shop my feet off tomorrow. hehe.

Oh! And it's so funny. Everywhere we go lately we seem to run into people we know. The other day I ran into Gerrie (ex-coworker, aka Gemini #2) at Target with her husband. Today we ran into Amanda (Jeff's sister-in-law) at Wal-Mart. I thought it was rather amusing.

In other interesting stuff, I can't seem to be able to avoid the craziness that is NKOTB! Heaven help my poor ears! It's bad enough that everyone and their grandmother is talking about them nonstop all over the internet, but now the radio gods are out to get me too. No matter what time of day I get into the car, and no matter how long I'm in it (whether it be 5 minutes to the post office and back or an hour to the mall) at least ONCE during that time I get stuck hearing the horror that is "Summertime." It's never the same station either, so I can't seem to avoid it! THEN>... today at Wal-Mart, we were walking around the electronics area and on ALL the TVs they had the Wal-Mart soundcheck with NKOTB! So there they were in big flat screen all over the place! I was rather amused, but it's also somewhat annoying. I am just tired of the whole scene and couldn't care less to hear another peep and now they're stalking me! LOL (Of course you know I'll probably still buy their CD whenever it comes out, but that's the extent of my interest. I do pray that the rest of the songs are a billion times better than "Summertime" otherwise I'll quickly put it up on half.com!) haha.

Man, I can't believe my hair's all gone. Ok, not all gone, but it feels so weird since it was starting to grow out a bit and now it's chop-chop-chopped again.

It's been a pretty nice Saturday. Not too exciting, but nice all the same. Ron had today off so we enjoyed most of the afternoon outside with the dogs. Later in the afternoon we headed out to Home Depot to check prices on fencing. I have $125 in gift cards, but that's barely going to put a scratch in the cost of fencing. Yikes. I need to Gather my little fingers off to get some more cards. I also looked at their garden area, because I wanted to pick up some plants, but all their plants seemed to be dead or dying. So I passed on getting anything.

We went to Target to wander after Home Depot and I ran into an ex-coworker of mine. I was so surprised to see Gerrie there, but it was good to see her! She's now working for a SF agent, but making fifty cents less per hour than what Borders offered me. For that price I'll go to Borders before I go back to the stress of selling! She's got so many years of experience with the company and that's just sad to see how little she's making... plus she has to work Saturdays too! Man, I'm so glad I didn't jump to go to an agent's office. We chit chatted a bit and I introduced her to Ron and got to meet her husband. Then they headed off and we went our way. Surprisingly enough, we didn't buy a darn thing. That never happens. haha.

A quick stop at BJ's followed Target, but again, neither one of us felt like spending money. Instead of shopping more, we decided to head to Applebee's for dinner. Good stuff! After that we came home and then had the dogs outside again until it got really dark. We were having a blast! The other day I had picked up a laser pointer for Ron and the dogs and the doggies just go wild chasing it all over the yard. Rogue was jumping way up off the ground trying to get it on the tree. I was cracking up! It's more amusing than a squeaky toy!

Tomorrow Ron is opening!! So we're thinking about going to the drive-in tomorrow night. We'll see how the weather goes.

Oh! Early this morning Ron saw the bear across the street! I went up to bed a little before 5 a.m. and he came up maybe 30 minutes later. He said he'd heard a noise outside so he glanced out the front and could see it in the bushes across the way. Man, I always miss it! Bummer!

I finished reading Night's Master by Amanda Ashley last night. It's the book I got from ijustfinished.com to review. I haven't written my review yet, but I really liked the book. A few quirks in the main character annoyed me, but mostly it was an enjoyable read. I decided to stick with the vampire theme and so now I'm going to start reading Stephenie Meyer's New Moon.

My high school friends are popping up all over the place on Facebook! I haven't friended all of them, because some I'm not sure yet if I want to really reconnect. Haha. Others though, I'm so excited to see them on Facebook!

Not much else going on around here. Ron's watching some stupid dinosaur show again. *yawn* Talk about a cure for insomnia!

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.

Ron's getting ready for work and will be heading out shortly. So that leaves me with yet another night to amuse myself. haha. A small part of me wants to head up to the Outlets again... but we have thunderstorms coming and I don't really want to be walking around outside in the rain. Maybe I'll head down to Target or Wal-Mart just to get out of the house for a bit. Or maybe I'll just stay home. Who knows!? haha

Yesterday I did head to A&P to do a little grocery shopping. I had a coupon for a free 20oz Coke Zero and the coupon for the free Stouffer's family meal from Gather. Funny thing about the Stouffer's coupon... it was supposed to be good for up to $7.99 and the family meals were all $8.39. I figured it wouldn't kill me to spend the 40 cents, but when the cashier rung the coupon up, it took off the full price of $8.39. I ended up getting the Cordon Bleu pasta meal. Looks like it'll be good! I can't wait to try it and write up my review for Gather. I love free stuff and would review just about anything that is given to me for free. hehe.

I've been emailing with a few ex-coworkers of mine the past couple of days. I needed to see if they'd be willing to be references for me. Some of them aren't responding. Grr! But Sue and Darlene both said they'd be happy to do so. YAY! But in sad news, Sue's dad passed away last Wednesday. I was so sorry to hear that. I'd been thinking about her last week too and had meant to email much sooner than I did. It's good to hear from both her and Darlene and I hope we keep in touch more often now.

Ron and I have been keeping our eye on the weather forecasts for the weekend. We really want to hit the Ren-Faire on Saturday. At one point they were calling for scattered thunderstorms, but now they're just saying that it'll be partly cloudy. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain and we can go!

Yesterday I finished reading Twilight. It was actually pretty good. Not the greatest book ever, but I enjoyed it. Eventually I'll find the rest of the books in the series, but I'm in no rush for them. I started reading Fire Along the Sky by Sara Donati last night. I was going to hold off for a bit, because I don't want to fly through the Wilderness series so quickly. However, once I finished Twilight, I was ready to get back into that world. Of course there's only one more book after this (so far). I'll have to try and hold back from jumping right into it when I finish this one. We'll see how that goes. haha.

Not too much else to write about. Same ol' stuff. The gal from Borders keeps bugging me to get the references, but I didn't want to just give her anyone's name and phone number. I wanted to touch base with people before I give out their number. So far only the two have gotten back to me. So I did give those to her, but I think she'll want more. Oh well. It's not like I'm 100% certain that I want this job anyway, but it must be a good sign if she's constantly bugging me, right? If she wasn't interested in me, well, then I think she wouldn't care if I ever got her my references. Some part of me really thinks I may want this job. I know it's not what I thought I'd want, but I think it would be neat in some ways. Although a bigger part of me just doesn't want to go back to work period. Haha. I need to start playing the lottery. Nah, I don't have any luck so that wouldn't do me any good. I just need to start GATHERing more and earn enough that way. hahaha. Right, like that'll happen. I'm trying to decide if I should cash in for a $25 gift card (Amazon, Target, Starbucks...) or if I should try and wait for $50. I do have enough for $25 already... but I think I want more. Although I'm not sure yet which one I want anyway. I want them all! Not that we really have a Starbucks near here... there's one in the Target, and we love getting drinks there on our way out after shopping. So it would be put to good use... but at that point wouldn't it be better to just get the Target card? I was almost thinking about trying to save up for the Kindle on Amazon. I'd really love to get that, but just think it's a little too expensive right now. But if I could get a big chunk of Amazon cards, that would help out. So you see how undecided I am? Hehe

Oh well... enough babbling for now. Maybe I'll run down to the fish store and surprise Ron with more fish for the aquarium. Hmm.

She's one rude witch! That's for sure! Seems like lately any time Ron and I have outdoor plans for the day/night, she comes along and brings with her some massive thunderstorms! We were going to go to the drive-in tonight and originally they were saying today's weather was going to be nice, but now it's all dark and icky out and the thunderstorms are hitting soon! After the weather ruined our plans for the Ren-Faire, I was hoping that would be that. Now Ron's schedule was changed and he's somehow managed to end up with Saturday off, so we thought "Great! Another chance for the faire!" Alas, the weather is once again calling for storms on Saturday! Grrrr! Of course it's too soon to really trust what they say, but I have this feeling it's going to rain on Saturday. Bummer!

Not much else going on here. I spend most of today outside with the dogs and a book. I've started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I'm rather surprised by it. I thought it was going to be silly and boring, but I'm actually enjoying it. I'm only halfway through the book though, so it could go either way.

Man, why do they keep playing Sonic commercials when we don't even have any of those around here!?! It's so annoying. I hate their commercials and wish they'd go away! They're so stupid.

I called the Borders gal back this afternoon, but only got her voicemail. So I left a message with both my home and cell phone numbers in case she called while I was outside. I made sure to bring my cell with me. Alas, no return call. I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or happy about that fact.