post feast

I am happy to have the day off today, it's off because I have to work tomorrow (I also got Thursday off because it was a holiday). I plan to relax, do laundry, and possibly go out for a friend/coworker's birthday.

Here is how Thanksgiving happened at our house...
On Wednesday I had to work, but before work I wrote a list of chores to get done in the hour between when I got home and when my sister arrived from Duluth. I got home, started in on the chores, found out I had a little more time to finish them because Alex was coming later than expected, Dave came home and asked me about the mess on the kitchen counter - explosion from me about expectations and a crappy workday (I had many nice people come in, but also a few impatient people who thought I wasn't doing much to help them, more on this later), finally with Dave's help I calmed down and finished up the list of chores. Alex showed up ready to party so she and Dave hung out while I worked on cooking Thanksgiving dessert (pumpkin cake/bars), making a bread mix, and baking bacon. Dave made us some delicious burgers for dinner. When I was finished with stage one of the baking extravaganza I joined Dave and Alex playing Rock Band and later another game called "Little Big Planet."
The next morning I got up and worked on the stuffing, cutting up bread, measuring out dried fruit, chopping celery and onion (had to switch to contacts at this point because the burn was too much from the onions and the contacts filter out the fumes). I finally got around to a slow shower before going to pick up my grandma. Alex and Dave said hi to grandma when I got her home and Alex continued to talk to grandma for a while. I had thrown the turkey in just before the shower and was now working on the sweet potatoes and green beans. Once Alex went back to her laptop grandma started helping with the sweet potatoes. At first this was nice, but soon she was trying to take over on the potatoes. I love my grandma to death, but she is 93 years old and isn't as spry as she used to be - let's just say that a potato got dropped, fingers almost got burned, and she may or may not have been close to starting a small fire. She won't relax, I'm sure I'll be the same way if I still have the energy that she does. I tried enlisting the help of Dave who had retreated to his computer. Apparently no one can hold grandma's interest if there is cooking happening. In the end everything turned out, I was just over-stressed because I was worried about grandma, over-controlling about "my" Thanksgiving dinner, and pissed that the other two weren't being sociable. At dinner everyone was happy and enjoyed the food. Sadly grandma was already tired out (4 hours later) and Alex brought her home. I then felt really bad about being crabby with her trying to help. I'm hoping that it wasn't very obvious to her that I was crabby. I sent dessert home with her and some salad since she never gets any at the assisted living place.
That evening was pretty low key, watched some hulu/tv and went to bed. Alex left this morning around 8:30 to start a crazy day of work at the mall.

As for the work comment (people not thinking I'm doing my best to help them, etc), I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Dave thinks that I'm pessimistic. I prefer to think I'm more of a realist in that regard. Related to work I realized that I am optimistic about people, I think that people are essentially good. When their actions don't match up with my idea that they are good it is extremely disappointing to me. I take it way too personally when people get mad at me at work, I really am trying to efficiently get them what they want, but sometimes it's not ready, or sometimes insurance won't cover it. Many times these circumstances put the customers in a bad mood. Since I don't have control of the problem it makes me feel helpless and inadequate. The example that stands out from Wednesday has to do with a person that came in for a rare item. The item was ordered because it's not something we carry in the store. The item was expensive (almost $200) and the person wanted to try to bill it to insurance. I went to our billing person to ask if the item would be covered and to find out if I needed to retrieve any extra paperwork (basically paperwork that would ensure the customer's responsibility to pay for what insurance would not). She told me that she was 90% sure that it was not covered and let me know which paperwork I needed to go over with the customer. When I came back and let the customer know everything I had found out he wanted to know if it was our policy to either have customers pay upfront OR be unwilling to fill out a bunch of paperwork. I know that didn't make a lot of sense the way I wrote it, but he made it sound like he only had two options, pay up front, or not do paperwork because salesperson is being a jerk and still have to pay up front. He basically stormed out after paying. I repeatedly explained that I was plenty willing to go through the paperwork (there were about 14 pages of it), but he acted really disgusted about it. I just wish that people knew that I want them to leave happy and satisfied, but I can only do so much. I'm not going to risk my job so that they can get free medical equipment. sigh. People may be good, but the world isn't always fair or gentle.

coming soon... introduction to foxkitty

all by myself...

I am feeling so lazy and unmotivated. I was surprised that Dave wasn't home when I got home from work, so I looked for my phone to see if he left a message (I forgot it at home again today). Sure enough, there was a message explaining that he had parent teacher conferences tonight and tomorrow night. Although Dave being home doesn't help my motivation, the mood is at least a little happier and lighter. It was very quiet and even with music things didn't seem the same.

I made a Reuben casserole for dinner. I am starting to go through our canned goods (some of them are left over from my grandma) and trying to use them up. The canned good in focus tonight was sauerkraut. It ended up being pretty good. I was supposed to use mayonnaise and Thousand Island dressing but I didn' t have the right dressing so I just used blue cheese dressing. It was a little strong and not as sweet as the real recipe, but still decent.

On Saturday Dave and I went on a walk searching for a Christmas tree. We found a couple of candidates but I was surprised at how sad many of the trees looked. Apparently there must be a lot of work pruning at a tree farm to keep the trees looking pretty.

Yesterday I cleaned up my computer and moved the important stuff on to an external drive before Dave wiped my computer. I wanted it running better and I have plans to put my favorite music off of all of my cds onto the computer. That might end up taking up a good amount of space so I figured I'd better make some room. I also played with Gimp, an open source program similar to Photoshop. Since I'm no fun tonight I will post the results of yesterday's play...








This is double Lydia (the ferret) and Kiki rocking out on our PS3 toys, with and without makeup and wardrobe.


Below is a summer pic of me softened and with a flare. If you look into the sunglasses you can see Dave taking the photo.

Duck pee

Today was a salesfloor and pharmacy day for me. Both were mildly enjoyable. Dave had a not so enjoyable day and since I was lazy it meant eating out.

Dave has/had an elementary holiday concert coming up in December. He was informed last week by the athletic director that the concert needed to be moved to a different date, and also gave him the date that would work... that date being 10 days sooner than the original. Dave was a little stressed about this news, but overall it didn't affect him much. Today Dave found out that none of the elementary teachers were made aware of the change. They charged into his office with pitchforks and torches demanding justice, luckily he was able to plead innocence in the change and the mob quickly turned to seek the blood of the athletic director. For now it seems that the concert is on hold until further notice.

He also had a fun little experience with his 4th grade class today. He sent a kid to the principal (first time this year) for banging on the bass drum (something the kid had already been warned not to do), only to have the kid returned since the principal was busy. Later on in the class Dave noticed a 4th grader not singing. He told everyone to sing but one kid was holding out. Dave continued to play guitar and initiated a showdown with this kid by staring at the kid continually. The kid began a pattern of looking at Dave and then looking away. Even the girl next to the kid noticed and started looking from the kid back to Dave and so forth. Eventually Dave was able to wink at the girl when the kid was looking away, breaking some of the tension. From what I hear, Dave won, finally staring the kid into submission, which happened to be singing in this case.

Kiki update: she is not excited about the new food. Still no vomit, but we're not sure if that's because she's not really eating much or what. If we add food to what she has she gets a little excited and starts to chow for a while before thinking, "oh *$#%, this is still that crappy duck and pea food." I like to call the food duck pee, probably adding to Kiki's distaste.

colder weather, nice weekend, kiki fix

Now that it's sufficiently cold enough that I don't go outside to sit and relax, I'm excited for the lake to freeze over. There have been a few mornings of thin sheets of ice on the shady parts of the lake, but it always melts once the sun rises above the trees. There are cross country skis in the garage, but I don't think Dave or I have any boots that fit into the bindings. If it stays really calm and there isn't snow the lake would freeze nicely for ice skating. I should look into getting boots for the skis, I'm not sure if I would just bring the skis in, or if there is a binding sizing somewhere on the skis.

In Kiki news, Dave took her into the vet last Friday since she continued her bulimia. The vet said that she seemed very healthy other than some arthritis. After some blood tests the vet told Dave that the problem was most likely a food allergy and that we would have to switch her cat food. We had the option of an 8lb sack at the vet's for $40, or going to Petco and getting a 10lb bag for $21. We went with the cheaper option, since we were going to the twin cities that weekend anyway. So far Kiki has not vomited once since being on the new diet, if this keeps up we will stock up next time we go down, although 10lbs should last her at least a month or two.

The weekend was nice, we got to see all parents (both of his and all 3 of mine) and still got a couple errands done. We ate at McDonald's for the first time in a long time when we were on our way down. I used the unhealthy oportunity to it's maximum by ordering an apple pie, ice cream cone, and burger. Dave and I had a mini-discussion about whether or not he ordered me a burger, or a plain burger since there was absolutely nothing on it, not even ketchup. I ate at "It's Greek to me" with my dad on Saturday. We were duds on Saturday night and went to bed before 10pm (similar to most nights). On Sunday we took a trip to Costco with my parents and sampled from the variety of freebies.

I'm trying to decide if I want to go ahead and start with the Christmas presents even though this is already an expensive month (with the loan and our 6 month pay on car insurance). I'm not going to want to do it later either so I guess I'll just have to decide by the weekend.

post reunion blues

My cousin and uncle left on Wednesday morning. It made me a lot sadder than I expected, I've been in mourning about the loss of the cousin I hardly had before the weekend. It's sort of silly, I don't know if it's just girly hormones or what, but I think it's because my cousin and I are alike and it was fun to find a "kindred spirit," or however that is phrased.

I got to play in the pharmacy again today. As much as I like my co-workers on the sales floor, it is exciting to learn something new, and as nerdy or weird as it may sound, I just like counting pills. Today I was at one of the stations checking out pills (I should know what the position is, but I don't) and learned the basics of the computer program. Unfortunately there is a chance that they will be going back to the old computer system that they used before I started there, which would mean learning the whole process over again.

Dave is starting a small rock group at his school and is also working on the elementary concert program. It's causing some stress, but I think he's excited about the rock part. When we both come home from work with stress it seems to cause rifts and today there was a small fight. The best part about fighting is the communication afterward. I feel a lot closer and loved after those talks, but I wish I could get better at staying calm during a disagreement rather than reacting and escalating.

I'm distracted because Dave is playing The Daily Show on Hulu and it's about bed time, so I'm signing off.

Bonding and falsetto

This weekend has been pretty nice and relaxing, but also satisfying because I got laundry done and my parents really helped out with the yard, groceries, and sewing. The yard is officially raked as well as it is ever going to be, I have an okay amount of food in the house, and my mom was able to hem Dave's pants with a cuff (something I had been putting off for two months).

Today my uncle and cousin arrived from Idaho and Montana respectively. I see my uncle once a year most years, but I have only seen my cousin once or twice ever and the last time was when I was in elementary school. We all had dinner together, then said goodbye to my parents, and finally got down to rocking with my (40ish??... haven't asked or figured it out yet) cousin. We played about 3 hours of rockband and each rotated positions until Mike was singing "Underneath it All" by No Doubt in awesome (and somewhat hilarious) falsetto.

A lot of times I like hiding out in the house and not being social, but the times I feel the most alive and connected are usually when I'm with other people. I still think that I re-energize when I'm alone, but I'm still working on getting over the idea that the best time is time alone.

In case I sounded a little haughty about the health stuff in the last blog (or two?), I will now tell on myself for my eating habits today. I started out the day with a large piece of banana bread (the loaf was made with two sticks of butter), moved on to a chocolate/cheesecake cupcake, and finished out the midday with some cheesy jalapeno chips. But hey, I still took my vitamins and had some V8, does that count for anything??

loan and trip

I love that it's Friday. This week was very busy at work and we did a decent amount of cleaning at home in preparation for my parents and my uncle and cousin coming up to visit. One of my co-workers, I will call her Mother D, and I have been meshing very well and got so much done this week. She's great because she's so vocal. At times that can be a tiny bit on the dramatic side, but overall it's really nice because she's so helpful and really lets me know how things should be, and when I'm doing a good job. Anyway, I need to make sure that she knows how much I appreciate her efforts.

I'm very excited because I am planning a trip to see a friend in Norway, and because Dave and I are going to pay off his student loans. The trip won't be for a few months but things are looking good as far as saving and getting to see friends and new places. Dave and I have been saving money and after talking for a while we decided that paying off the loan was a better money saver in the end. We will try to make up most of the money we are putting into the loan in 8 months. That might not work, but I think we could probably do it in less than a year, and for now that's good enough for me. We're also looking into moving our car loan to another company but I don't know much about that so I'll have to talk to the bank. I plan to call them on Monday (sorry, a lot of this is turning out to be a note to self).

I've been trying to be healthier lately with mixed results. Overall my diet is healthier, especially at breakfast (oatmeal and V8 juice), but I haven't done exercise besides doing a yoga dvd the other morning. Most of the dvd just had me getting into wussy poses. Sorry, I know that there are tons of benefits to yoga, but there didn't seem to be anything athletic about what I was doing. It seemed like a good thing to do after a strenuous workout. I'm not going to be jogging any time soon, a mixture of laziness, cold weather, and deer hunting danger, so maybe I'll try more exercise dvds. The best outcome of the healthy eating and getting enough rest is that I haven't really been sick (unless you count the weird flu shot incident in early October). I hope everyone else out there is staying fairly healthy, or that there is good health in the near future if not.

Kiki and the food trail

As I have mentioned previously, our cat, Kiki, has problems holding down her food. She vomits a lot. We were trying different ways to prevent the vomiting. I used to brush her every morning when her fur was still long (I may go back to doing that even with the short do), we tried the "Furminator" hair brush, but her type of fur doesn't seem to work well for that, and most recently we tried a treasure path of food. When it was time to feed Kiki I picked up a cup of her food and began to drop 2-3 pieces every few feet through out the house. Kiki anxiously followed me around and would stop at every 4th or 5th grouping to dine. After a while she gave up and just looked dejected. For the next 4 days there were just pieces of her food all over the carpet. She wouldn't find them and eat them, she just came to us and complained that there wasn't anything in the bowl. Lazy. I finally went around and placed the pieces back into her food dish but we are still finding the random piece when we walk around. We read that we should be giving her some wet food or raw meat. Apparently she doesn't like either. On days that I cook meat plain before adding spices, etc. I may break some off and try that but it hasn't happened yet (tonight we're having a pork loin recipe with rice and squash).

In work news things have been going mostly well. I stayed late today because someone came in just before my shift ended to get a commode and wheelchair. There is a LOT of paperwork, for a wheelchair especially. I noticed some things that bothered me, a co-worker going to the back to get a drink and not coming back for about 10 minutes, another co-worker talking with others while things started to get busy by the pharmacy... but I am realizing that neither of the incidents lasted very long and they are probably things I have done myself without realizing it. Especially if I run into someone who needs help with something while I am just running to get water.

It's about time to take dinner out. It wouldn't be quite so late if not for all of that paperwork, but there's always an excuse.

Halloween

This is the finished product of my Sally costume. I was pretty pleased with it. A few customers at the drugstore told me that they didn't think I was real when they first came in (I wasn't moving) so that was unexpected and fun. On Friday I wore half of the costume (dress, shoes, leggings) but went home and got the wig and tights for the arms since so many people at the drugstore dressed up. I wish I had gone all out on Friday since more people ended up dressing up that day than on Saturday. I'm already starting to get ideas for next Halloween so that is exciting. I don't plan on starting that until at least end of summer though.

I am so sick of the rainy weather. I'd rather have snow at this point, it would be prettier and brighter. I don't know if I will get to the leaves or not, I don't really want to deal with them in the spring but I don't want to rake in the rain either.

There were no winnings from Dave's poker game, but he had a lot of fun seeing his friends. I'm sort of boring and dumpy today, I blame the rain. Since I'm not being very productive on here I might as well start laundry. woo hoo.