Stealing from JennAnn

What better way to avoid work on Monday, New Year's Eve morning, than doing a survey???

1.) Where did you ring in 2007?
at a very strange party... I was the only caucasian there... I'm so not used to being a minority!

2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day?
married, receiving flowers, getting hopped up on sugary, red and pink candy

3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)?
hell to the no... well, I did accidentally strolll into one of the A&M buildings while showing my brother around, so I guess technically I was "in" a school then ;)

4.) How did you earn your keep?
continuously telling the new SWAT teams that would come visit us about all of our problems... that earned me not only a paycheck but also room and board

5.) Did you end up in the hospital?
nope... well, I did go through 2 tours of Stanford Hospital, so I guess technically I did end up "in" the hospital

6.) Did you encounter the police?
The PoPo? yep! I had to guard their bicycles for them while eating on Fisherman's Wharf... luckily they'd handcuffed them to the bar next to my table, so no one could steal them. I wonder if they could tell that I was slightly intoxicated....

7.) Where did you go on vacation?
North Carolina, Reno, Vegas, Monterey (twice), Napa, LA, Cambria, Phoenix (not totally vacation, since it was part of moving), Hawaii (Waikiki and Kona)

8.) What did you purchase that was over $500?
lots and lots of furniture

9.) Did you know anybody who got married?
David Barker

9.5.) Babies born? Faith... my first niece to meet as a baby

10.) Did you know anybody who passed away?
not that I recall, and I'm hoping I'd remember an event like that, even with my terrible memory

11.) Have you run into anybody you graduated high school with?
I found a bunch on myspace and am actually meeting an old friend for lunch today

12.) Did you move anywhere?
Yes... back HOME!!!

13.) What sporting events did you go to?
A&M vs. texas football game - WHOOP!

14.) What concerts did you go to?
none :)

15.) Are you registered to vote?
Yes

16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 7?
We had a voting event on 11/7? crap...

17.) Where do you live now?
HOME

18.) What did you do on your birthday?
ate delicious cake that the husband made

19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2007?
go on my Honeymoon! geez, it took long enough!

20.) What is one thing you regretted this year?
not making it to Muir Woods and the Winchester mansion with the husband

21.) What's something you learned about yourself?
I think I like being married

22.) Any new additions to your family?
No...not yet.

23.) What was your best month?
October - got to go to Napa, LA, Hearst Castle, Phoenix and Hawaii. good times

24.) What from pop culture will you remember 2007 by?
The Spears sisters - Britney shaved her head and Jamie Lynn got Pg

25.) How would you rate this year with a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best)?
9... it was a good one. Probably second only to 2005

Being the Mama is Tough Work

I admire all of you mamas and soon to be mamas, let me just say. For some reason, the one time that I truly feel like I'm in mama training with my puppies is when there is middle of the night throw-up sessions. I think it stems from when I was a kid and would go wake my mama up in the middle of the night after puking. In my memories, I always made it to the toilet, but I have a feeling that was not the case.

At 3am this morning (wait, I should offer a warning here that the story is going to be about puke, so weak stomachs should not read any further) I awoke to a weird sensation on my hand. It was cold puke on my pillow. My hand had made its way up there and woke me up when it encountered something unexpected. My pillow was pretty covered in grossness. It was even in my hair. I was almost crying. Luckily my nose had not woken up, so I was spared the smell reactions, but I was nearly in tears over the fact that there was puke in my hair and ruining my new Tempurpedic pillow. Not good. We originally assumed that it came from Princess, and that could be the case as no one ever came forward to take responsibility.

I stripped my pillow, stripped the bottom sheet, laid out the top sheet to sleep on, took a shower, hugged Princess close to me and started drifting off to sleep. Then, the husband woke me by saying, "she's doing it again." Well, I knew it wasn't Princess because she was peacefully sleeping in my arm. It was Doogie, and she was going at it under the covers, on the new Tempurpedic mattress. Thank God we sprung for the protective cover. So, we stripped off the bottom sheet (that was actually the top sheet), the blanket, the husband took them to the washing machine and I dug out a new sheet.

The husband was smart enough to ban poor Doogie from the bed, since the protective cover was no longer on our muy expensive mattress. He tried to tell her she had to sleep in the dog bed in the corner, but she was not listening very well. I ended up laying in the corner with her, half in the dog bed, covered in dog blankets. We got up about every hour to throw-up. It was not a nice night, especially since we did not always make it outside quick enough. And unfortunately it is continuing. She is bundled up in my lap, doing her best to prevent me from working.

All this grossness now documented, my hats off to those with mommy instincts who can go from dead sleep to bustling around, taking care of the sick and stripping sheets in under a minute. It gives me confidence that I will be able to handle motherhood, if/when I am so blessed. Please, for those of you who are already moms, don't comment on all of the things that are more gross than this that you have to deal with! Let there be some surprises for me, or I will never undertake the endeavor!

New Year's Resolution 1: Maintaining a Clean Inbox

I don't think I have blogged about this yet, but I am running into an issue with my laptop. The keys are just not working right. For example, if I was typing the word "hello" my laptop sometimes gets excited and types "hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo." It is not just with one particular letter or anything, and it is VERY frustrating! I will definitely be having it checked out next time I am in Cali. Until then, I am doing my best not to throw it out the window.

There is one alarming feature to this. Usually, when it goes wild and starts typing the letter forever, I will hit enter or backspace to try to get it to slow down and/or stop. These keys are also impacted by the disease, so sometimes I end up with a million lines under my sentence and sometimes it deletes everything I have written (praying that does not happen right now).

I wasn't even thinking that the delete key might go crazy in my inbox, but that is my favorite feature of this disease. I hit the delete button to wipe out a stupid email, and like 10 go away with it. And once it's gone from my inbox, there is not a prayer I am going to find it in my deleted items nor remember what it was. So there is an initial moment of panic, and then just happiness that I have less items in my inbox than I did prior.

Pearls of Wisdom from the Queen

I have had a few fellow bloggers requesting to know my secret on creating ♥s. I thought as part of this lesson that I would add in a few more pearls of wisdom.

First, the heart. All you do is type in #9829; where you want it to appear. For example, in my I ♥ San Francisco post, the title looks like I #9829; San Francisco. Simple as that.

Another fun trick that I enjoy is on hyperlinks to have them open in a new window. Just because I want to assign some required reading, I don't want you leaving the Queen B page behind. So instead of this www.msn.com/, I do this www.msn.com/. The HTML of the last sentence looks like this:

So instead of this [a href="http://www.msn.com/"]www.msn.com/[/a], I do this [a href="http://www.msn.com/" target="_blank"]www.msn.com/[/a].

*Please note that I had to replace <> with [] symbols to keep the page from editing itself*

You'll note the difference is that on the second one I have added in target="blank" inside of the <> section, immediately after the hyperlink. Make sense?

You can do a lot of fun things with the html coding. I usually just google it for the code. For example, for Kim's bday I wanted smiley faces, so I just googled "smiley html code." And I am always available for help

Merry Christmas!

Let me start off by saying that I am bummed that I can't upload any photos from my camera right now. The cable is in my computer bag, which I believe is in the very back of our understairs storage closet, which does not have a light. Way too dark right now to find it.

Let me then say, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" to everyone. I truly hope that all of you had a wonderful, joyous day, surrounded by friends and/or family. And I hope that you all stuffed your little tummies as much as I did!

To steal from Kim, I am making a list of the most-used phrases uttered on our Christmas Day.

10. Yes, I would like some more ______ (fill in the blank with holiday food items)
 9. No! (to the dogs, constantly barking)
 8. This is interesting (to all gifts that we could not say, "this is GREAT," to)
 7. Time to go _______ (fill in the blank with the next location in our required stop list)
 6. Check (the husband and the 9th grader ending their marathon chess game in stalemate)
 5. Look at Faith (my 6 month old niece) chewing on her shoe (which was as interesting as any toy she got)
 4. What time is dinner? / Where is Karla? (waiting on Karla for dinner, as usual. but I totally understand lateness!)
 3. I can't believe I have to work tomorrow (me, constantly perplexed)
 2. Thank You! (for all the great gifts exchanged)
 1. I'm so stuffed (followed sooner or later by phrase 10)

Christmas Eve Recap

Let me start off by saying that I HIGHLY recommend waiting to Christmas buy until Christmas Eve. The deals are fantastic, and the mall was really not that crowded. It was much worse on December 23rd. I think people might avoid shopping on Christmas Eve, just on principle. Not the Queen, nor the King. We were both out in full force this afternoon, but home in time for the 5pm church service with my family. Last year we did my family's church, dinner at the husband's mom's and then her church service. This year, just my family's church and dinner with my fam. It worked out very well.

Afterwards, I went back to my parents' house to wrap presents while the husband took over our house. It worked out really well. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is sitting on the floor of my parents' room, wrapping presents with my mom. She claims to hate the fact that I wait until the last minute, but she puts up with it because after we do all of my wrapping, I put bows on all of the presents (even hers) and then put everything under the tree.

Tomorrow's plan is to drop our puppies off at my parents', go to the husband's mom's house for breakfast, back to my parents' house to open presents, back to his mom's for dinner and presents and then to our house for presents. It is sure to be a busy day. Bless my mom for opting to make Christmas dinner on Wednesday. It's like three days of Christmas, imo :) Only bad part about Wednesday is that I actually have to work until 1:45pm, then head off to my parents' right afterwards for dinner. Darn that work for getting in the way.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! yawn...

22s Unite!

Happy birthday, ♥ Kim1Bump♥ . I would've had this posted earlier, but we had a power outage all morning. Apparently the "ice storm" of 70 degree weather caused too many heaters to be working overtime, leading to a power outage. Or something... after 40 minutes on hold with the electric company, all they would tell me was that (1) they were aware of the situation (2) their people would be onsite in 10 minutes and (3) they could not give me any more info.

But not to make this all about me, even though my New Year's resolution was to make the blog all about me.

Happy Birthday to the bloggiest, funniest, zaniest person who is way too similar to me in sense of humor. God help the universe that there are 2 of us. And since we might actually be the same person, and therefore I have no photos of us together, I am stealing from her myspace page (we're each other's #2... 22).

Congrats on your PG birthday! I assume this means no LITs in celebration, so I will have one for you in toast. Cheers!

Why The Husband Won't Let Me Use Knives

Somehow I did this while cleaning the knife this morning. Blessing or curse that the husband keeps his knives SUPER sharp. It's a "clean cut" which is supposedly a good thing, but it hurts like a B. Also, it's hard to type without using your pinky!

OK, the husband finally woke up, and I showed him my cut. He said, "MORON," before demonstrating the proper way to clean a knife (after he had correctly guessed how I was cleaning it).

I told him that it bled for like an hour, and he goes, "Good. That means it was a clean cut." WHATEVER.

Then, I was getting the creamer out of the fridge, and lightly tapped my pinky on the door. This is what ensued.

One More New Show

Saw this yesterday on www.realitytvworld.com

VH1 has announced My Fair Brady... Maybe Baby? -- the third season of its My Fair Brady reality series that hasn't aired a new episode in over a year -- will premiere on Sunday, January 20 at 10:30PM ET/PT.

My Fair Brady's third season will continue to follow America's Next Top Model's first-season champ Adrianne Curry and former The Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight -- who met during filming for VH1's The Surreal Life in 2004 -- as they've settled into married life and contemplate the possibility of having a child together.

New Shows for the New Year

I got one of those surveys from the Entertainment Panel I joined while in Vegas (story here) yesterday, and it got me excited about upcoming TV.... some of which does not even require those striking writers! Here's a sampling of what I'm excited about for the new year....

• American Gladiators... not totally sure about this one, but I'll give Hulk and Laila a try
  Lipstick Jungle - Based on the best-selling book by Candace Bushnell, this dramedy follows three high-powered friends as they weather all the ups and downs of lives lived at the top of their game
• Cashmere Mafia - Four ambitious, sexy women who are best friends try to have it all. Not just powerful and intelligent, they’ve bonded into a female version of a “boys’ club,” to support and counsel each other on their way up the corporate ladder
• The Moment of Truth - Contestants are hooked up to a lie detector and asked 21 increasingly personal and delicate questions. If a player answers all 21 correctly, according to the polygraph, he or she could win $500,000
• Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann - Judges from “Dancing with the Stars” will put their reputations on the line as they search for America’s most talented amateur performers who can both dance and sing
• American Idol
• Celebrity Apprentice... though I'm afraid this will be bad tv :(
• Biggest Loser: Couples
• Big Brother

So... a reprieve from Clash of the Choirs (my total bad tv addiction) is coming soon! Side note on Clash... it TOTALLY proves what I tell everyone: if I watch a show once, I get so hooked!

ARGH

The Queen must apologize to her loyal reader for seriously slacking on posting lately. I am still proud of myself that I made it through most of the year sticking to my New Year's Resolution of blogging every weekday. I did miss a day here and there, but I mostly made up for it. Can't live with the guilt ;)

Lately, though, I have just been lazy. Really no other excuse for it. Unfortunately, the laziness does not just apply to blogging. I have been TERRIBLE about bill paying lately. It's really awful. I've also been very bad about figuring out what I'm going to be getting everyone for Christmas. It's like I'm sitting here wanting to wait until the very last minute to do the shopping. It is very unlike me. I'm really not sure what my deal is. I'm very happy to be back home, but for some reason I just cannot get myself motivated :(

Clash of the Choirs

I have come to realize tonight what the ongoing writer's strike really means. I thought I got the full impact when Desperate Housewives left us in a midseason cliffhanger after the tornado. I thought I really understood how bad off things were when all the reruns started. But tonight, I have truly grasped the full impact. I am watching Clash of the Choirs.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE END THE STRIKE, SOMEONE! This has got to be the worst reality show ever. Bring back Temptation Island!

Am I alone in this thought? Well, I know I'm not totally alone because the husband keeps yelling down from upstairs, "that was awful," after each one performs.

UPDATE: whew, glad I remembered Monday Night Football was on!

UPDATE II: with football over, I have returned to the choirs. This is a list of the quotes that the husband has yelled down to me...

• What the hell?
• So they have a choir? This deserves a show?
• This is terrible.
• What are you watching?!
• (to the tune of Michael Bolton's "How am I supposed to live without you?") How am I supposed to get kicked off this show?

Question: how many times should the Star Spangled Banner be sung in one show?

Is That A Fly In My Soup?

This week in Cali has been interesting. A series of "adventures," as my grandmother would call it. A brief recap on the trials and tribulations that ABBA and I have conquered:

• Flat tire
• Crack deal going down on ABBA's car
• Insane SF cab ride
• 5 straight nights of drinking
• Nearly running out of gas on the way TO happy hour last night
• No wireless connectivity in the House of Dodds (and we were too busy to care too much)
• Hiccups
• 3 separate choking instances, with me nearly having to Heimlich ABBA (that would've been another first for me)
• Random stuff in my food

I want to elaborate a bit on the last bullet. For lunch on Monday, we went to Wahoo's Fish Taco. I ordered the kid's bowl with spicy fish and both kinds of beans. It ended up kind of a soupy concoction because they apparently decided that since I didn't get rice, they didn't need to strain the beans. When I plunged my fork down and brought something up, it was a leaf. Now, I know there are fancy schmancy cooking-type leafs, but this one makes me think it blew in off of a tree. I'm taking it home to The Chef to let me know which variety it is.

Wednesday night, we ordered in Chinese food to watch the ANTM season finale. There was something rather hard in one of my bites of chicken fried rice. Turns out, it was some kind of heavy-duty staple.

I ♥ San Francisco

I have to think two very special gals for a fabulous night in the city last night. The plan was to meet up with Sam's "brother Kenny" and hang out in his 'hood. ABBA was kind enough to drive us to Sam's place, since I have no car and it would be a very long walk. She found primo parking that did not require paralleling just a few blocks away from Sam's.

We met up with Sam, and ABBA took control, first ordering Sam to change because they were dressed like twins. It would've been really cute, but we're not exactly 6 years old anymore, I suppose. ABBA then decided where the best spot to hail a cab would be and then stuck her Texan foot into the street, arm stretched defiantly overhead and got us a cab! Woo hoo!

We cabbed over to Ken's where he showed us to a couple of great spots within about 20 steps of his apartment door. Great food, maybe too much great drinks, great times.

The night was capped off with the best cab ride I have ever had. Again, ABBA hailed a cab with a purpose and somehow we gave him more or less the correct address to get us back to Sam's. He then handed me his iPod, and I took control of the DJing. Started off with some Welcome to the Jungle - live edition. Ryan, the coolest, funnest cabbie ever, was jamming to the music. He was playing the drums on the steering wheel and boppin his head to the beats. He was also driving like a maniac, but I figured that was my fault for choosing Guns N Roses. What are ya going to do?

Second song up was 99 Problems by Jay-Z. It just seemed to fit my mood, for some reason. Ryan, the cabbie, immediately switched modes to rap drums on the steering wheel. He was great at going with the flow and jamming out to whatever came out of the stereo. Wonder if he was high...

To cap off the great night in the city, Ryan took some great photos of us smiling like looney tunes in the backseat of the coolest cab ride ever. I promise to get pic's and Ryan's contact info up in the next few days, so if you are ever in San Fran, you can have a great experience like we did.

When we got out of the cab, Miz Treo came in handy. Sam was having trouble picking the right apartment door and then could not find the right key. Thank God for Miz Treo's extra bright and long-lasting light.

Once Sam was safely tucked into her apartment hallway, Andrea went off to find her car... praying the whole way that all of the windows were still intact and that her car was still where we left it. Whew... it was. It was also surrounded by a bunch of shady characters. ABBA had to plow through a crack deal to get to her door. They were really cool about it all, though, apologizing for drug dealing on top of her car. What a night....

I Want to Be Just Like The Champ When I Grow Up

Probably an inappropriate title because it would be a stretch for me to say that KT is more mature than I am. Not that I am more so, but we are very similar. However, just like millions of other bloggers out there, I make it my daily mantra to be more like The Champ.

Many moons ago, Kim began giving me a lot of grief about my purse. Because, to be honest, my purse is a giant, object-eating purse. Kim has the "outside the box" method of carrying her essentials around in her bra. God knows I have enough extra room in there to carry around my credit cards, license and the kitchen sink, but I chose not to take her advice and continued on with my purse-carrying ways.

Recently, however, my purse has become my dumping grounds. I cannot tell you how many times one of my cell phones has been ringing, and I cannot find it in the depths of the beast before it goes to voicemail. This has really been grating on me, so I decided to give Kim's method a try this week.

I will admit that I do not have the correct carrier to go in the bra, so my best attempt is with a teeny tiny Clinique-issued carrier that fits easily into pockets, or in my hand with my Treo. In it, I can fit my driver's license, 2 credit cards, ATM/check card, chapstick and my personal cell phone. (see photo)

The week did not get off to a great start, when I had already left for the airport and realized that I had left my license back home in my purse. U-turn.... Other issues that I have encountered include:

• When I broke a nail and did not have the nail file that I usually would have in my purse
• When I decided that maybe I should carry my health insurance card with me, and it would not fit inside
• When I walked into my room at the House of Dodds to gather my coat, backpack and purse, and I could not find my purse. It's tiny!

Other than these issues, and I'll defer to any comments by ABBA adding things because she has been impacted by my social experiment for sure this week, I have actually rather enjoyed not lugging around my purse. I hope that my outside the bra attempt will be good enough for The Champ

Book Your Next Adventure with the House of Dodds

I am back in Cali this week. The trip is off to a great start. Had a lovely drive through the Marin Headlands and dinner in Sausalito last night. Can't beat spending time with good friends, eating delicious food and drinking some wine. After dinner, I checked into the House of Dodds.

This morning, my carpool service dropped me off for the mandatory Starbucks run. As my driver (ABBA, of course) and I were exiting with our delicious, hot beverages, she noticed that her rear tire was flat. ARGH

The driver and I looked at each other, in silence. Finally, one of us broke the ice with, "hmmm, what do we do?" After much more thoughtful silence, one of us said, "I guess we change it."

I picked up the Owner's Manual, which the driver had opened to the section on changing a flat. It was a very simple 29 step process. I took over barking orders, and the driver did the grunt work, much like my recent experience with furniture assembly.

It came up at around step 3 that neither the driver nor I had ever changed a flat before. This was a very empowering experience for the both of us, though we talked often about how if we were in Texas a strapping man would've volunteered himself to take over for us. I tend to prefer that route, but this was character building.

But the time we got to step 17, which was removing the wheel nuts, an older gentleman stopped to help us. My driver had already removed 4 of the 5, but that 5th one was sure stuck. The gentleman was kind enough to inform us that you weren't supposed to loosen the wheel nuts while the car was jacked up because it might roll off. This was step 15, which I somehow missed because I was fascinated by their drawing of the flat tire. doh

The gentleman assisted us in un-jacking the car and removing the 5th wheel nut, then he ran inside to get his tasty, hot beverage. We were good to take back over. We took a break here, though, to drink some of our own tasty, warm beverages.

This was about the time that the second offer of assistance stopped by. It was a nice lady in an SUV. She admitted that she had no clue how to change a tire, but did we need a cell phone, gloves, coffee? We were set, but we thanked her for her offers.

ABBA did a stellar job of removing the flat, pointing out the giant screw stuck in it and picking up the spare. She then realized that the car was not jacked up high enough to get it on. She put the spare tire down, and returned to the jack. She jacked and jacked and jacked, and I told her that was probably good. She tried the spare again, still not high enough.

Just as I thought ABBA might throw the spare at me, we got our final offer of help. Nice guy in a Mercedes, business suit and Starbucks in hand offered us help. ABBA, so tired of jacking and unjacking, readily accepted. He got the car jacked up to the appropriate height, got the spare on, put on the wheel nuts, unjacked the car, tightened the wheel nuts in the appropriate criss-cross pattern. I mentioned that it looked like he had done this before, and he replied, "I had to have a job while in high school, so I worked at a garage." Score! We got a pro!

Even though ABBA and I did not complete the process from step 1 through 29, I feel immensely more confident than I ever have before that I might have it in me to change a tire. Girl Power! Although, since I live in Texas, there are plenty of strapping guys around to do it for me ;)

Final Thoughts on Rooms to Go

I hate them.

After talking with both the store manager and the customer service line, they will not let me return the table. They did offer store credit, albeit minus 23% of what I paid, but I need no more furniture at this point, and the store credit is only good for 30 days.

The main point that troubles me is their Satisfaction Guarantee. How b.s. is that? To quote it, "Our policy is your complete satisfaction. We are dedicated to providing the best service possible... I promise to do everything possible to assure your continued trust in Rooms to Go."

When I asked the customer service rep what their Satisfaction Guarantee meant to me, their customer who was in tears of remorse over a table that had been delivered 3 business days prior, she said, "it means that the furniture you received was of equal quality to what you saw in the showroom." This seems a pretty limited guarantee, in my opinion. Certainly not a Neiman Marcus guarantee.

Also, she was kind enough to point me to their return policy (or lack thereof) printed on the back of my receipt. I said, "the problem with this policy is that I don't see it until I have already bought something. At that point I can only recover 80% of what I paid." ARGH

In talking with my brother afterwards, he had a friend who had a terrible experience with them. So.... DON'T SHOP THERE.

Being a Grown-Up Sucks

I think I realized today why the drinking age is 21... you really only deserve to be able to drown the stress of life in alcohol once you enter adulthood.

OMG.... HELL NO, WE WON'T GO

Ok, so not recommending Rooms to Go. I was just told that they do not have a return policy. We have measured and measured and re-measured on the couch that is supposed to be delivered on Saturday, but I'm not sure if it's going to fit. So now I'm in freaking panic mode. How can a store NOT have a return policy???

UPDATE: I received a call back from the store rep that I talked to earlier. She told me that the manager had approved the return, but it would only be for store credit. I have spent SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS there this month, and they can't apply this credit to some of that stuff? I am SO pissed. I have a first course of action, and a back-up plan. First attempt will be to call the manager and plead my case. And threaten to not receive my $2,000 couch and chair this weekend. My second course of action is to plop the table into the back of the husband's truck and sit outside their store, offering the table at a $200 discount.

I AM PISSED... will keep y'all updated, whether you like it or not. A girl's gotta have a place to vent...

Today... Not so Much

Today has not gotten off to a very good start. It basically started when the alarm went off at 7am, and I decided I was still really tired. But I had to wake up. I hate when that happens.... oh, wait, that's how every morning starts.

Anyhoo, I got my butt out of bed, and fixed myself up for work as best as I could. I calculated out my day to figure out if I could come home, workout and shower/do my hair before going to dinner at my mom's. That seemed to work out in my head, so work hair today is leftover from being done up last night. I'm shutting myself in my office all day, so who really cares. Why do I come to the office.... working from home is so much more productive.

Before leaving for work, I had to give Princess her shot. We are going downhill. On the first attempt, she jerked away, and the formula went all over the place (all .2 ml of it). So I had to re-stick her, during which time she let out her wounded yelp. So now we have gone from just flinching to yelping. NOT GOOD. I may have to go up to the vet to walk through it and find out what I'm doing wrong. Or she's just not happy with the program, which I can totally understand. I've explained the benefits to her, but I don't think she understands that this way is better than steroid shots because it's a natural solution rather than steroids. She just looks at it that she's getting stuck every other day rather than once/month. We will talk about it again tonight.

Then, I got in my car. It smelled like sausage and pasta aka the husband's leftovers from dinner last night. I looked in the backseat and did not see it, so I assumed the smell was just still lingering from the 20 minute drive home last night. I began looking for my garage door opener (also doubles as a garage door closer, which is what I was needing. why are they only called "openers"??). I could not find it anywhere, but I did manage to find the husband's leftovers stuck under the passenger seat. After going inside, threatening to kill him and asking where the opener was, I just had to leave. Never found it, so I had to do the shut the garage door/leap over the beam dance to get off to work.

Then I called the Rooms to Go customer service number to schedule a return on our kitchen table, and I was told I had to call the store. Considering I was AT the store on Sunday, and they told me to call the 1-800 number, this is not boding well. Alright, I'm about to call them. Side note, RTG customer service lady was a jerk, so I suggest not getting into a situation (or two) where you have to deal with them.

That's Why I'm Not in School Anymore

I got a very urgent IM from my li'l brother yesterday. It went something like this:

David: what's your tomorrow like? mucho grande favor that shouldn't take much effort on your part, but would be insanely beneficial for me
me: ok
David: you available at 10am central? for some reason we have registration tomorrow at 11 eastern. and i'll be in transit to the airport
me: oh no :(
David: you got a minute right now to walk through something?
me: btw, i love googletalk bc i can just pull up this chat tomorrow to go through it tomorrow as i am so enrolling you in nothing but gardening classes
David: if you click on spring 2008 - register... not sure what happens from here, but this is probably where it goes down tomorrow so i'll tell you what i need to do
me: it's so dumb that they still do registration. they should just let you order them (which it looks like they do) and then randomly generate it
David: agreed
me: i imagine there will be buttons that i click or something, and i'll just click them faster than any of the other successful young professionals
me: so what happens if the first two get filled up before i can click even though i will click fastest?
David: that's what i'm going to work on now
me: ok. i do have a good history on registration, so you came to the right person
David: that's what i figured
me: i am setting myself an outlook reminder with the link and the login info and instructions
David: i was concerned about you and dad not being around, because i wouldn't have patience with my other options
me: i did make it thru tamu without ever having to do a friday class ;)
David: yeah, i'm bummed i have to take one next semester
me: :( i'm re-logging in based on my outlook reminder to make sure i got everything
David: that's why i've recruited you
me: ha ha. i will try hard! i will even pull my mouse out, so i'm not stuck with my laptop mousepad ;)
David: because if it hits the fan tomorrow (which it could regardless of my recruit), then i'll be more forgiving of you because i'll know you understood what to do
David: there's one more interesting thing. if you're logged in too long on this site, it will auto log you out. yet you don't want to log in at the last minute, because you'll have to crawl through each page at an incredibly low rate
me: yeah.... i'll start logging on 15 mins ahead and then log in every 5 mins. i won't close the previous session until i log in again
David: good plan.
me: how many people am i competing against?
David: tomorrow will be 440 i think
me: ok. they'll probably all be hitting it... these are overachievers ;)
David: i'm assuming so
me: i will win

So, this morning at 9:45am CST, I began my preparation. I talked to my brother, and told him that I will even be hitting it from both my desktop and laptop. I was psyched. The scent of competition hung in the air. My heart was racing as the clock hit 9:59:47...50...53...55...58... REGISTRATION TIME.

But.... no hyperlinks or magic buttons appeared. I refreshed, nothing new. I called my brother, no answer. I refreshed again, nothing new. I called my dad for a third opinion, nothing there for him, either. Refreshed again... his first class was already full!

Turns out there was some glitch in the system on my brother's account where it expected a mythical pin number to be entered. I finally got a hold of him, and he had to call the school and be manually enrolled. My first failure on class registration. I'm bummed
:( I hate to lose....

Which is Worse?

Some of you may know that I recently began giving Princess allergy shots. She is basically allergic to Texas. When we first moved here, she was getting steroid shots every three weeks, and that did not make me happy. When we returned from California, we had a better solution in mind. That solution was to get her blood tested for what she is allergic to, and then the vet would concoct a formula that will help her body build up immunity to those allergens. It's on a schedule where for the first month I have to give her a shot every other day with an increasing amount of "the stuff" in it. Then it goes to every 10 days, every 2 weeks, every 21 days and hopefully long term maybe once per month.

It sucks to have to shoot her up every other day. )Side note: the husband refuses to participate in the process for fear of being the "bad guy." This does not bode well for eventual parenthood.) The first day was a little rough, and the subsequent days don't appear to have gone better from her reaction, but I'm feeling better. She is awesome, though, and just flinches. No barking, yelping or snapping at me. Afterwards, I give her the test. The test is to give her a kissy face and see if she will give me kisses. She always does! She is so my little Princess.

Saturday, not only did she get a shot in the morning, she also had to get a bath that night. I made a kissy face to her after the bath, and she totally refused to give me kisses. So which is worse... getting a shot or a bath???