Amazing

It is only 35 degrees outside – I’m freezing.  It is supposed to get up a lot warmer today – originally said mid-50’s but now it is high 40’s predicted.  I’m sick of them never being able to forecast the weather better.  Why do they get paid so much money if it is an “educated guess” when they are often more wrong then right.  I think they should get a demerit for every day they are wrong – then at the end of the year, if they have more demerits than days that were right – they have to take a $10,000 paycut for that next year.   I wish I could be wrong most of the time and still get paid well.

I slept in my bed last night – as usual when I sleep in it, I didn’t want to get up this morning – I was so darn comfy could have stayed there all day!  Today I am grouchy – the apartment is freezing.  I turned the heater on and it doesn’t seem to be heating at all so will probably have to call the maintenance man.  Ugh.  Does mail go today?

Even though it isn’t that warm, I’m still going to take the dogs to the dog park – they deserve it and it won’t be that cold to them with their winter fur.  Might be a trifle cold on their feet but I doubt it.  Bennie is so desperate for someone to play with that he keeps trying to stuff the sock in Baxter’s mouth since Baxter won’t play.  Baxter is in a mood because I’m in a mood.   He wants in the Christmas tree area and I won’t let him – he keeps eyeing it though so I know he is thinking about it anyway…little shit.

Next week I have the entire week off.  I hear it is supposed to snow – hope not.  I hate driving in the snow and I have places to go.  Ugh.

Only Time…

I have that song in my head by Enya – don’t know why.  That reminds me, I need to charge my mp3 player for my trip tomorrow.  My son is also charging his AND he is bringing his laptop so that will be good.  I doubt he’ll get a wireless signal out in the country of my sister’s house but he can get one probably most of the way there.

Bennie has been driving me nuts.  I let him inside and he whines to go out – put him out and he stands at the door whining to come in…I obviously am not understanding what it is he wants.  I think he likes the idea of outside until he goes out and finds it is wet, then he wants to come back in.  I don’t want to walk them – the worms will be out again.

I’m trying to load things up for tomorrow.  It is 35 outside so I could even put the pies out in the car and they’d stay cold enough but I won’t.  I’m putting a big note on the door so I won’t walk off and forget them.  I’m suppose to take the tv and dvd player down so the boys have something to watch while the adults visit – I forgot how heavy that damn tv was.  Man I love my flat screen – even if it is smaller than my son’s.  It sure is sharp and beautiful.

Was planning on starting Christmas cards yet tonight – plus I need to finish rearranging furniture but will not mess with that since it is so late – don’t want to wake my neighbors.  Besides, I really think my patience is all used up for tonight and moving furniture is usually something that tests it when it is fully charged.  I almost always hurt my toes even though I’m wearing shoes.  Should have gased the car today – didn’t even thing about it.

When did banks stop providing envelopes at their night drop and outside ATM? That was very annoying.  I had something to deposit and had no envelope – I finally wrote my account number on the check and dumped it in the night drop – irritates me.

Have to be up by 8:30am to be on the road around 9:30 to make it to my sisters by Noon.  Will have to pick up my son and we will have to stop to get coffee somewhere and gas…preferrably at the same place to save stops.  Think I might walk the dogs and go to bed…all the rest of this stuff is going to be here waiting for me when I get home tomorrow evening.  Man, I’m exhausted.

On a cool note, my train does go around the tree, disappearing behind the presents to re-emerge on the other side.  It plays Christmas music if I want it to – I love it but I must say, it wrecks a lot! I imagine because of the carpet.  I love having a full size tree again too – it is lovely.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, world.  May each day be full of love and health!

Oh yeah, I’m actually looking better on my NaNo – think I’m about even with what I should have for today. 

OK So I Was Wrong

I have more like 7,000 words to get done – hope to get most of that done later today before another days worth gets added in.  I have 31,083 words so far so am firmly past the halfway mark.  Course, I’m way past the halfway mark on time too.  My goal is to be done on the 27th so I can relax the last three days of the month.  However, I’m off on the 30th so could do some then and get it submitted.  I want to have it submitted no later than noon on the 30th.  I did check this evening to make sure that the NaNo counter and my Word program both count the same so there wouldn’t be any surprises at the last minute.

There is no way the story will be over at 50,000 words.  I have finally accepted that matter.  One of my writing buddies is up in the 60,000 word mark – well past the 50,000 required words.  She advised she was nowhere near done either so I don’t feel bad that mine will end up being about 85,000 words by the time it is complete.

I didn’t want to rush into the story but now it is feeling like it is moving too slowly so I need ot pick up the pace some.  I haven’t even had the two main characters kiss yet…something one of my friends thinks is nuts.  I am working up toward a “first kiss” scene but won’t get it written tonight.  I just killed off the woman’s best friend so that should bring her and the main male character closer together.  LOL

I bit my lip earlier and it keeps bleeding.  It is swollen and hurts anytime I lick my lips.  I know, how could I bite my lip so hard? I don’t know – was out walking the dogs, Bennie jerked on the leash and I must have been chewing on my lower lip which is a bad habit I have.  Anyway, I bit down on it so hard that I dropped Bennie’s leash – luckily he is a good doggie and waited for me rather than taking off like Baxter would do. 

I had a delicious turkey dinner when I got home last night, curtsy of the landlords.  I have had a stomach ache since then though so wonder if it was something I ate.  Thought it would be over by now though it if was something I ate but guess not.  I ate when I got home tonight and my stomach began acting up again right away.  Arg – I refuse to get sick.

Rearranging

I need to rearrange the furniture again – well, still.  I started it last week but gave up after a bit – or rather, was satisfied that I had done enough after moving a few things.

Arg, maties. 

I had seriously thought about going on a road trip at the end of the month but I don’t know if I will now.  I was going to see if my son wanted to go to Chicago or somewhere like that with me.  But I don’t feel like it now and I’m not sure I can get the time off now that I am suppose to be training someone starting Sunday.  Course, someone else could train her in my absence.  I was going to see about taking the 30th and the 1st off so I would get five days off work.  Wasn’t going to go to Chicago for the entire time, just for a night or two, but now I don’t know if I would do that or not.  I don’t know what I would do with the dogs. 

I may still take the days off – go visit my sister in Missouri or whatever.  I’m not a big one on traveling during the winter months though I would go back down to Florida if I had a place to stay once I got there – paying for hotels is horrendous.  I really want to visit other places – next year my sister and I are suppose to be going to Utah so that will be nice.  I’m going to try to start traveling more during the nice months.

Wow, my legs ache so badly.  LOL

Partly Cloudy with Rays of Sun

The sun is shining but every time I get excited about it, it goes back behind the clouds.  I’m hoping it will find its way to stay out here in a bit.  I need to walk the dogs and it is a much better experience if the sun is shining.   

Today I am getting the Christmas tree and stuff.  I know, I’m rushing it but I don’t care – it is the first time I’ve looked forward to Christmas in over a decade.  Why? I have no idea but I’m not going to question a good thing.  Usually Christmas makes me so depressed that I just want to hide until it is over.  This year I have to rein myself in so I don’t overdue it with silly things like lawn blow-up things and what not. 

I did buy a train set – did I post about that already? I hope it comes today or tomorrow.  It is a Christmas train set that goes around the bottom of the tree.  However, I was thinking I might put it up on a table and buy all the little Christmas village things like I use to see every Christmas at the Shell Factory.  I doubt I’ll have the money to go that far but now that I have the train, I can start collecting the village stuff cuz there is a lot of it to choose from.  I can make my very own perfect little town.

I didn’t go to bed last night until 4am but I slept in my bed so slept right through till 10am when my alarm went off.  That was awesome though I don’t think the dogs enjoyed being in the kennel.  I’m thinking I might use the outdoor leashes to leash them inside so they can still roam around but not get to the things I worry about them tearing up.  I do it now and then when I’m working on something on the floor and want to keep it out of their reach – they seem to like it fine as it still gives them a lot more movement ability than the kennel.

I need to get going I guess, the dogs are giving me their “oh sorrow” look and the sun has actually stayed out for almost a full 5 minutes!  I love the sun – it makes everything so bright (ha, ha) and cheery. 

Can’t wait to get my presents all wrapped to go under the tree.   

 On a sad note, I am so far behind on NaNo now that I don’t know if I’m going to be able to catch up.    It is hard to write when the holidays are here – should do this in October.  Maybe next year I will write it in October for November.  I’m going to try to catch up but with just about every day filled up with something between now and the end of the month, it isn’t looking promising.

Crazy

“It rather bothers me that my future use doing terrible now that I have the microphone.”  That sentence was done with voice recognition – it was suppose to say “It really bothers me that the computer is doing terrible now even though I have the microphone.”  I probably need to go back and retrain it now that I have them but so far I’ve been very unimpressed with its abilities.  According to the be promotions for the software, it is supposed to be so wonderful.

Got my hair cut today – I really like it.  It is short but not too short – I just couldn’t take it anymore.  Spent the afternoon from about 4pm until 10pm with my son – we had a good time.  I must say though, going to Best Buy with him is never a ‘quick” thing.  We end up spending hours there.  My feet are killing me, they hurt so bad.  It isn’t just the bottoms of my feet but my calves too.  I told my son that shopping with him is a big workout for me.

I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping – this is the earliest I’ve ever had it done in my entire life…seriously.  Tomorrow I am going to Walmart to get the tree and ornaments – then I am putting that stuff up, wrapping the gifts and getting them under the tree.  I have to buy a gate of some kind to keep the dogs away from it though as I can imagine Bennie will try to eat the tree, presents or both.

The dogs want me to take them on a walk and I know that I need to but damn, my feet hurt so bad.  It is almost 2am and I should be getting in bed but I drank so much coffee today to keep up with my son that I don’t know that I will be able to fall asleep very soon.

I bought Christmas music and movies today to try to help keep me in the holiday spirit.  I’ve been working very hard on that this year.  Have Christmas with the Kranks, It’s a Wonderful Life (B&W/Color), and the Grinch.  I need to get Scrooged yet.  I have National Lampoon’s Christmas, Home Alone, and Home from the Holidays from last year.  Can’t think of others I will spend the money on but I suppose a few might come up.

I have furniture to rearrange this week.  I’ve decided to buy a cheap table and chairs because I can’t find a set I like but I want one for the holidays.  Hope we have a white Christmas!

Dictation

Today has been a busy day.  Have been learning voice activation software which has been a challenge.  I have been reading to my computer so that it can learn my voice and the way I speak.  It was doing much better at work than it is doing at home. 

It’s been like trying to teach a child to read.  I don’t have a microphone so it has been getting a lot of background noise. 

The computer typed the above part – it took it twenty minutes because it couldn’t understand most of what I said.  I should have bought the microphone in CVS but I had already ordered the recommended one for arrival on Thursday or Friday.  It is very frustrating when the computer doesn’t get what I’m saying – at work it did so much better but I didn’t have the tv on, the clock ticking so loudly or the ceiling fan rotating. 

I have to be to work tomorrow at 7am which doesn’t thrill me as this was the time I was suppose to be able to sleep in.  I have a class called “Active Shooter” which is for dispatchers of universities so we will know what to do if a student goes postal.  Others have gone to it and said it is pretty good but I’m not really into the whole idea.  Why? Because I don’t think they can teach every scenerio and that each instance is unique and, therefore, unpredictable.  To say one class can teach us what to do is rather far reaching since every dispatch center has their own layout, command structure, and rules.  However, it probably will be somewhat interesting.

I didn’t get my writing done for today and I don’t feel like doing it tonight either.  Hopefully I can get off early tomorrow to catch up.  The story is at a standstill so I will have to figure out what happens next.  I don’t think the story is that good – it will need major rewriting before it could ever be sent to a critiquing service even.

The apartment is very cold this evening – I need to turn on the heater I guess.  I suppose I will turn on the humidifier too.  If I can get off early, I will see if my won wants to go for soup and coffee.  I’m not sure if he has to work tomorrow or not but I think he does.

Anyway, I need to get moving and get a few things done before I have to be in bed in 45 minutes.  I sure hope I don’t wake up again in a few hours – that gets so very old. 

It is weird, now that I’ve been talking to my computer it seems like it should be typing all this as I compose it in my head.  At work I kept trying to tell the computer what to do too, forgetting that it my laptop was more sophisticated than the desktop models.

I went the last two hours with my belt undone at work – no one said a thing and I didn’t realize it until I was untucking my shirt as I was leaving.  How embarrassing.  Man I have to lose weight.  I need to get this whole sleep thing down so I can exercise more.  Ugh.

Not again

Still didn’t get enough sleep.  Got two hours, was up several, and slept another 2.5 hours so I’m really dragging today.  I may see if I can take off at 3pm today so I can go home to sleep.  Course, that is a stupid reason to take off work so probably not.

Tomorrow should be my day to sleep in but we have an Active Shooter class all day so I have to be in at 7:30 am till 7pm.  I did get permission, though, to go home when the class is over (probably 4:30) so I will probably do that though the OT would be nice.

Right now I am low man on the totem pole so I could get mandatoried in to work but I’m too tired right now to care.    I know they need someone 11pm-3am on Friday night – then I’d have to be back in at 7am for my regular 12 hr shift – but if that is the way it goes then whatever.

Anyway, I am at work now and though I am tired, I am going to try to write on my story some.  I lugged my laptop in again today but I consolidated so I wasn’t carrying my purse, my “stuff” bag, and my laptop.  The “stuff” bag carries in the soda, soup, etc., that I need throughout the day.  Yesterday it had two cans of soup in it because I felt yuck but it made the bags so heavy that today I took one can out.

Granted I am only walking two blocks but the stuff gets heavy and the last block is uphill.

Sleep, oh sleep, why does thou elude me?

So much for a good nights sleep before my 12 hour shift.  I have heartburn, chills, sweats, my neck hurts and I feel like I could throw up.  None of that is a good thing when my shift starts soon.  Have to be up in an hour…have been up since 2:30.  I’m going to have to drink a lot of tea  and soda today, I can tell.

I bet all my deliveries come today while I’m at work – hope no one steals them.  Why can’t the delivery services work with my schedule? I tried to order stuff so it would be delivered Wed-Fri but someone through that stupid holiday in there screwing everything up.  If I don’t get to feeling better, I may be going home early anyway.  Have Kelsey and Jade working so they can handle it today – no home game or anything to be too busy.  Hopefully I’ll feel better though.  Maybe my maintenance man will put the packages inside for me when he brings me thanksgiving dinner later.  I thought that was last weekend but it is this one instead. 

Man I wish I could just throw up to get this over with.  Maybe I’m hungry – all I had to eat yesterday was half a turkey sandwich and a cup of broc soup.  I’m afraid to eat though – don’t want to tempt the gods.

Both dogs were hyper all night but now that I am up, they are both sleeping beside me on the couch.  Brats.

Hungry

I am rather hungry but my son isn’t answering his email.  I’m considering going into town and eating without him because I’m getting a hunger headache which is never fun.

Took the dogs to the dog park – we were there for an hour.  Several people remarked that mine were the most high-energy dogs in the whole place, including the bigger dogs.  Baxter and Bennie ran around constantly.  They are both fed and sacked out now – I sure do adore them.

Was rather hoping my Christmas cards would come today.  I know, I know, Christmas is still a long ways off but I ordered more cards because 17 wasn’t going to be enough once I made out my list.  I love them though and still have the one framed above the TV.  I love wolves.  Actually, there aren’t many animals I don’t love.  I “adopted” a River Otter at the beginning of the month – my goal is to adopt one of every animal both WWF and NWF offer (no duplicates though).  I started with the River Otter because it was the one that has been adopted the least…yet they are so adorable.

I took my car to the car wash and bought a “Tidal Wave” wash which cost $9 but was worth it.  My car looks all shiny and the windows have RainX again which I like.  I need to go out and wash the inside of them too.  I would do that now but I am so hungry I can’t think of much but food.

Kind of wish there was a movie out that I wanted to go to but I don’t think there are.  Course, I haven’t checked in weeks so guess there could be by this time. 

Well, anyway, I don’t know what else to write about and I need to get doing some things around the house.  Hope everyone is enjoying this awesome weather!