Update on the Update on Steffi

Well, she's sick again. Not wanting to eat and going out to eat grass. I gave her some pepto bismol so maybe that will help some. She was pretty fiesty when I tried squirting it down her throat with a syringe (no needle).

Mom got her dsl hooked up today. We can get the incredimail to work when sending email, but not when receiving email. I emailed mom two suggestions that she can try to get it to work, but I don't think she's going to try it. I might have to work on it the next time I'm there. In the meantime she can send and receive email from her provider so she isn't without email. I did get onto Youtube and check out some Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal video.

I went shopping this morning. Here's how it went: Walmart - they double charged me for an item (may they lose the lawsuits that have been filed against them); Around the Farm - didn't have the Nature's Miracle stain and odor remover so I had to get some other kind; Post Office - my package was damaged but it was just a couple of books and they weren't hurt; Gas Station - gas was $0.04 cheaper there but the pump ran so fast that I could barely stop it on a round number; Bank - they didn't have any deposit slips to fill out; Krogers - only one lane open and had to wait.

Update on Steffi

Her latest poopy moment was mostly solid and I didn't see any blood in it so she is feeling a bit better right now. She ate a little bit of turkey and bologna tonight. We'll see if that stays down. She's not looking too good right now but she was pretty active and excited for her dinner. I think that's the last food and water she'll get tonight. I don't want to overload her tummy.

I've been researching my crashing laptop on the internet. There's a bunch of people who claim the laptop crashes because of lint and dust that collects within the machine. Some sort of design flaw with Toshibas. So, along with their tip of velcroing blocks on the bottom of the machine to prop it up higher so the vents aren't blocked, they also suggest taking the back off the machine and blowing out the lint and dust with canned air or vaccumming it out. I don't know about taking the back off of the laptop, but I've got canned air I can use to blow into the vents.

Around the House

What's been going on with me lately? Well, I was on the diet for three days. Overnight between Friday night and Saturday morning, Steffi became seriously ill. She has been passing blood so I don't think she's going to be around much longer. She's 15 and a half years old so I imagine this is an age related illness. All day Saturday she was very ill and not even wanting to eat, but last night she started having a bit of an appetite again. I'm only feeding her a little bit at a time. I fed her a whole slice of bologna last night and she threw it up so she's only getting a little bit at a time now. And I'm monitoring her water intake since much of what she threw up last night was water.

Along with cleaning up the house where Steffi's been sick (the house smells like carpet cleaner), I've been trying to collect the last of the Violet Winspear books I need to finish the collection. I just ordered about 6 more last night from Amazon marketplace and I think I'll need about 9 more. Hopefully, over time I can get the rest of them. I also read a golf book Friday night. It's called Heroes All: My Ryder Cup Story 2006, by Darren Clarke. It was pretty good. Plenty of good pictures. Even one of the streaker.

I took the puppies to see mom and dad today. Mom got her installation kit for the high speed internet but she hasn't hooked up yet. She checked some kind of online status and it says she's not 100% yet. I don't know what that is, but I'm going along with it. I have to go out tomorrow to pick up a package at the post office so I think I'll go to the bank too since I got my paycheck on Friday. I might stop by mom and dad's to see how their high speed internet is working out for them.

I dismantled the nursery area yesterday morning. Now the puppies can run a different circle in the house. They will like that.

I've been watching quite a bit of tennis this week. It's Tiger Week on the golf channel so I've had to find something else to watch. Last night I watched Andre Agassi beat Pete Sampras in a semifinal match at the 2000 Australian Open. It's great that these matches are aired more than once so we can see players who don't play anymore.

A New Beginning

I started a new story today. Hopefully it will turn into a book. A good book at that. I had the laptop on all day and it didn't crash once. I'm wondering if it's a graphics card that makes it crash since it seems to happen most often when I'm playing that memory game that comes with Vista. I don't know anything about computers, as you all know. Oh well, as long as I can write my stories on it, that's all that matters.

Tomorrow will start the diet again. I plan to stay on the diet this time. There shouldn't be any more parties or anything to derail me.

There hasn't been much on tv today. I've been watching the Open Access marathon on the Tennis Channel. I actually saw a few things I hadn't seen before. Murphy Jenson did do more episodes than the Roland Garros one and the one with Lindsey Davenport in the boat. Oh, and let's not forget the Las Vegas ones. They play those all the time too. They are doing Tiger Week on the golf channel so I probably won't be watching that this week.

My sister, brother-in-law and the kids went to my brother-in-law's family today for Christmas. My parents took a nap I think. LOL.

Well, I think I will go and do some research for my new story.

Still Stuffed

Well, I'm still stuffed from the christmas food. Ugh!

My sister, brother-in-law and the kids came up to my house to meet Winnie and PJ today. Winnie was scared for a while and growled and barked and whimpered, but she warmed up to them.

There's talk that I might be going to Jacksonville to visit the World Golf Hall of Fame sometime this year. I checked the local airports and they don't fly direct to Jacksonville so I might have to figure something out. I don't see any reason to drive the approximate 12 hours to get there if I'm not going to be driving once I'm there. I wouldn't know where to go. But if it would take the same amount of time to get there by plane if I have to wait for connecting flights and stuff, then I could rent a car and drive down. I wouldn't want to use my car and put the miles on it unless it was hugely expensive to rent a car. There's still time to figure it out. I think they are thinking sometime in the Summer when they will have some vacation time. And I could use mom's garmin map thing if I go and drive myself. LOL

I did some Amazon shopping a little while ago to get some things from my wishlist that I didn't get for Christmas. I should hopefully have the whole series of Alias books now and a few more books to add to the Violet Winspear collection.

And I hear that my mom is going to sign up for Verizon DSL. Then my brother-in-law is going to set her up with a wireless router so I can log on at her house using my lap top. There's nothing on the internet that I need high speed access for. At least, not that I know of. I've gotten along without it this long. Verizon is having this deal - $15.00 a month for life if you sign up for a 2 year contract. I don't trust phone companies and contracts. $15.00 a month is cheaper than what we are paying now for dial up.

Christmas at Mom and Dad's

I went to mom and dad's today for Christmas. I got there around 8 or 8:30am and everyone was already up. I figured they would be sleeping in after the long drive in from Florida. I spent the whole day there. We ordered dinner from the grocery store and found out when we got it that they wanted us to spend 2 hours heating everything up. We could have made it all from scratch in about 3 and a half. So, I don't think we'll be ordering it again. And we sped up the heating process this time with the use of the microwave.

As for the presents, I think everyone was pretty happy with what they got. I'm thrilled with what I got: the 2006 Ryder Cup dvd, a couple of pig things, the pancake puffs pan, and $20.00 cash. I got Mom a Monkees cd and Flannel Sheets and I got dad a rechargeable flashlight and a set of utility knives. The I got them both the Bible on DVD and three jars of specialty jelly. I got my sister a couple of books she wanted and I got my brother-in-law a cd of 1970's music and t-shirt that said "I think, therefore I'm dangerous". I got them both some tea from the Stash Tea company. I got my niece Jasmine dinosaurs. I got her one that walks and roars and a stuffed animal with a cd of music and a dvd of the Land Before Time. I got my nephew a couple of toys that play songs and teach the alphabet and numbers.

Everyone is supposed to come up to my house tomorrow. So, I have to vacuum tomorrow morning. My sister wants to meet the puppies.

I have a bunch of candy to eat now and probably more coming. Dad will find a way to give me more.

Christmas Begins!!!

Well, my sister, brother-in-law and the kids are on their way here. I was able to take the puppies up to see mom and dad today. The puppies really like going there. And Mom hardly ever comes up here so that's the only way she gets to see them. When I got home I took the puppies out for a walk. It was so warm today.

We are going to have our Christmas dinner and fun tomorrow. My sister says that will give the kids two days to play with their toys before going on to my brother-in-law's family's home for their Christmas festivities.

I still haven't vacuumed the house yet. I got home and made the cranberry sauce and the noodles. And watched the Brian Boitano Barry Manilow Skating show on NBC. They needed more Barry but it was a good show nonetheless.

Mom and dad have so much candy at their house. I'm going back on the diet after all the food is gone.

I'm watching Saturday Night Live again tonight. This time it's the best of the 2006-7 season. They started off with Jake whatshisname singing the song from Dreamgirls. What's so funny about that is that he could have gotten to Hollywood Week on American Idol with that performance.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZsssssssssssss

I spent part of today trying to catch up on my sleep. This week at work was horrible and I didn't get much some sleep. I got up this morning and fed the cat and dogs, then went back to bed for about a half an hour. Went to the bank early and walmart, krogers and rite aid and then came home. I ate lunch and then took a nap. Got up and dyed my hair and then did some little things.

My sister, brother-in-law and the kids will be leaving Florida for WV tomorrow morning. So, since they won't be at mom and dad's yet, I'm taking the puppies to see their grandparents tomorrow morning for their weekly visit. I've got to make cranberry sauce and homemade noodles for Christmas dinner that we will be having on Monday. I hope we do presents early on Monday so the kids will have time to play with them. I think they go to my brother-in-law's family on Christmas.

Boy have I eaten too much today. I got one of those 16 inch deli pizzas. There's still some left in the fridge so that's an improvement on how I used to eat. But I also got some peanut clusters and I've been eating those and drinking milk. I need to drink water instead. I'm pretty thirsty.

Whhhoooopppiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am off now and the workweek is officially over for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let Christmas begin and last thru Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to start Christmas tonight and give the dogs one of their toys I got them.

One More Day

One more day and my Christmas vacation starts. I can't wait. Last night I had about three hours of sleep. I couldn't stop my mind from thinking about work and I had that headache. I ended up taking tylenol at 2am and that didn't do any good. So, I took fake sudafed at 3am and that finally did something for the headache. I was falling back to sleep by around 4:45 am. Too bad I get up at 5am. So, I think I will be going to bed by 9pm tonight.

The funny videos shows that are on are reruns. But I turned it over to the Croc Hunter and they were showing dead sharks on a beach and I didn't want to see that. So, re-runs it is.

I think winnie's tearing up my kitchen floor. I have to go find her.

Headaches

I have a headache. My eyes got cross-eyed at work today. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

So, I did what any reasonable girl would do. I got some ice cream on the way home. LOL. It's fat free, except for the peanuts. I don't know how they can call it fat free if it's got peanuts in it. But, I'll believe them. LOL.

Fritz chewed a hole in the puppies' duck's head. It's a squeaky toy. I had to stuff the stuffing back in and put the duck up so that one day he can have brain surgery and get that hole sewn up.

Speaking about the ice cream. I just ate a bowl and had an audience. Winnie was on my lap the whole time. That took talent for me to eat the ice cream and not let her near any of it.

Well, I'm off to find some jokes to read. There are some supposedly fun websites in the new Family Circle magazine I think. I read about them today in some magazine today and I think it's Family Circle.

Oh great. Fritz is barking now. He barks very loudly. That isn't good for my headache. But at least he's barking to play with the puppies.

Lazy Sunday

I took a nap this morning because it was rainy and windy and dark outside. Then I got up and did some laundry, packed up the Christmas presents into a big box to get them ready to take to Mom and Dad's house. I ate too much, all day long. It was a special day for the puppies - they got a bath. PJ tried to climb out of the baby tub but Winnie, my temperamental biter, just stood there and tolerated it. They climbed onto my lap after we were done and I brushed them. Winnie likes to chew on the brush. So, yeah, I'm a bit soggy and smell like Hartz flea and tick citrus shampoo. I brushed Fritz. He thought he was next for the bath, but I didn't make him get one.

And, to try to get into the Christmas spirit, I made Christmas cookies for the dogs. I found these cute miniature cookie cutters and I made them candy cane shaped and teddy bear shaped cookies. The cookies are cheese, peanut butter cookies. I didn't have any bacon bits to put in them.

As for the snow, we barely got a dusting until about an hour ago. Then we got a good bit. I don't know how much more we are going to get tonight. The snow-loving weatherman on the local news claims one to three inches, but the National Weather Service says less than an inch today and less than an inch tonight, for a total of less than 2 inches. I hope I can drive up the driveway tomorrow evening after work.

Ooh, I'm watching the food network and the Barefoot Contessa is using canned pumpkin in something. I have a can of pumpkin in the cabinet for when the dogs get tummy aches. I could use that in a batch of cookies.

Chris Farley's Lunch Lady

This character reminds me of yet another co-worker. What does that tell you about the people I work with? At least these two workers aren't in my local office, they are stationed in another office and I deal with them mostly through email.

Twins

I'm watching the Chris Farley retrospective on NBC. He did this character - a woman with short brown hair who was reading descriptions of restaurants to Adam Sandler's character. Well, Chris' character looked exactly like this woman I know at work. I don't know how I'm going to keep from laughing when I have to see the co-worker again.

A good, funny evening

I'm watching the Saturday Night Live Christmas show. It's pretty funny. They need more truly funny things on tv. The funny videos shows aren't this funny, which I guess is a good thing since those people aren't trying to be funny.

Birthday Report

I went to mom and dad's today and took the puppies. It is my birthday and Mom had a cake and ice cream for me and I got a present. Mom has always been a little different when it comes to presents. You can give her a list of things you'd like (Christmas wish list for example) and she would buy you things completely unrelated to anything on the list. This time, she got me a can of whole cashews. Strange gift, but they are my favorite nut and I never buy them for myself.

I got pictures of the puppies with my santa hat-wearing dad. I didn't get one of him holding PJ but I was lucky to just get that hat on him. The puppies won't be going to their grandparents' house next weekend. My sister and her family will be there and the house is just too small for the little puppies to be there. I can see everyone tripping over them.

We might be getting some snow later tonight and tomorrow. The national weather map on the Today Show said 1 to 3 inches, but since it's supposed to rain here all day and all night, I wonder if most of that 1 to 3 will fall as rain. I parked my car down at the main road in case we get a bunch of snow. I need to be able to get down my driveway and get to work this week.

After I stuffed myself with cake and ice cream, I came home and made a sort of pizza. I had some leftover cheese and pepperoni from the pizza roll thing I made the other night. So, I mixed up biscuit dough and flattened that out on a 12 inch cookie sheet and pre-baked it. Then I coated it with garlic butter, spaghetti sauce, the cheese, the pepperoni, and then what I had left of the mexican blend shredded cheese that I had in the refrigerator. Baked that for a nother 3 or 4 minutes until the cheese melted. It was pretty good. Unfortunately, I am so stuffed now that I feel miserable. I hope how soon the food eating part of the holidays will be over and I can get back to the diet.

A few posts ago, I commented that everyone has to have ham it seems for any holiday. Well, I was very pleased to see that many people on the food channel and fine living channel make beef roasts for holidays. It's not turkey, but at least it's not ham.

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday Kari! Check out her blog: I Struggle and Emerge.

Shopping and Napping

I got up this morning the regular time, 5am, but after feeding the cat and letting steffi and fritz out and back in, I went back to bed for about an hour. Then I watched some of the Veria channel because nothing else but infomercials and depressing news was on. I fed the dogs and got ready to go shopping. I stopped by Tractor Supply and realized I should have gotten Dad's Christmas presents there instead of Walmart. I bought a couple of toys for the dogs there. Then I went to the bank and to the Around the Farm store - got two more toys for the dogs. Went to Family Dollar - two more toys for the dogs. At Walmart I spent a bunch of money. They have this pendulum thing that swings back and forth and then by force of magnetism stops on one of the Magic 8 Ball like answers on the base of the device - it's supposed to be an executive decision making aid. LOL. I got it to help me with the self hypnosis. I figure the swinging pendulum would help me focus and then looking at the swirls on the base, I think that could help too. After Walmart I went to the Mexican restaurant for lunch. I haven't been there for a long time because they never look like they're open. This time, I looked at the hours posted and saw that they would be open while I was still in town. Then I stopped at Krogers and bought turkey breast for Steffi, a couple of packages of bologna, a half gallon of milk and a tin of popcorn. I normally don't buy the popcorn in a tin but the tin had these really, really cute dogs on it and the dogs were wearing Christmas hats. So now I have a bunch of popcorn to eat.

Came home and dad was here to help me take the dog pen down and move it out of the living room. Remember this was the double decker pen - Dad put my 24 inch pen on top of my 36 inch pen to keep the puppies from jumping out. So, now the puppies are loose in the house all the time. I told dad we might be putting it back up next weekend if the puppies didn't get used to things. I had hoped they would be easy to feed by feeding them mighty dog, but they don't want to eat mighty dog. Winnie wouldn't go near it and PJ would take a piece of the meat if I handed it to her. Then she'd run off with it and wallow it around but not really eat it. Tonight, I put the puppies in the family room and fed Steffi and Fritz. Then I brought the puppies back in.

I had to vacuum where the pen used to be so I went ahead and swept the rest of the house. The puppies didn't mind the vacuum too much. After that, I put the turkey breast on to cook and took a nap. Got up, ate some of the popcorn, drank a bunch of ice water, watched Martha Stewart's show, fed the dogs, ate some poptarts, and I just tried to sew a strap onto a baby bib so Winnie could wear it. I got Winnie a pink one and PJ a blue one and they both say "I Love Mommy". I wasn't having much luck sewing a corduroy strap onto the bib, so I just used red felt. It doesn't need hemming.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm taking the puppies to mom and dad's tomorrow. Usually I go on Sunday but this Sunday we are supposed to get snow so I don't plan on driving then. And tomorrow is good for going to mom and dad's since it's my birthday. Mom's got me a present and I think cake/ice cream, something. Dad asked me if I was off the diet for my birthday and Christmas. I'm bringing my digital camera tomorrow, if I remember, because I also bought a Santa hat and I'm taking that with me. Dad doesn't know it yet, but he's going to wear the hat and hold the puppies and I'm going to get pictures :)

Doing the Dance of Joy!!!!!

Yiipppeeee!!!!!! I'm off from work for three days!!!! I don't want to think about what I'll face when I go back. But right now, everything's wonderful!! And for the last work hour today I actually got some things done. They don't even add up to a drop in a bucket, but I got some things done.

In case you haven't had a flashback - the Dance of Joy is a celebrated dance of Mypos, the fictional native land of innocent Balki, star character of the sitcom Perfect Strangers. I need to see if that's out on DVD. I loved that show. I had to watch it every week when it was on tv.

Well, I'm still eating bad, bad food. I felt like celebrating for having an extra day off so I stopped at walmart and got some pepperoni, cheese, rolled up pizza crust in the dair case and some spaghetti sauce and made a pizza roll. I rolled out the crust, and then I would put down the cheese and the pepperoni and roll it up, then put down more cheese and pepperoni and roll it again, and again until you've rolled up all of the crust. Then once it's baked you cut it into thin slices and dip it in the spaghetti sauce. It was way too salty and didn't really taste good. I wasn't really wanting pizza.

The puppies' dog pen comes down tomorrow. I don't know how they will like doing without it. It will be different for them at night. And when I feed fritz and steffi, the puppies will have to be somewhere else. I guess tomorrow evening they will start eating mighty dog dog food. It's the wet food in a can and I'm thinking they will eat that right up. Currently, they will eat a few pieces of moist and meaty and run and play, then come back and eat a few more pieces

Boy would I like some ice cream right now. Something to combat the salt from that pizza thing. Too bad I don't have any.

Cruel, not Funny

I'm watching funny pet and people videos on tv. They had one of a gerbil who stuffed a big dog bone in his cheek. That was so not funny. The poor thing had to be feeling miserable. And then they had a hamster who stuffed so much paper in his mouth that he couldn't get his mouth closed and he was wiggling like he was in pain and then the person there tried to give him even more paper to eat. Also, not funny. They shouldn't put stuff like that on tv.

Another Christmas Luncheon

Yes, I ate today at work. Bad, bad things. All carbs except the nuts on the brownies and the peanut butter in the peanut butter balls. Again, there was ham. Why do people have to have ham for Christmas? I think I read that in some country, the family would sell their hog at Christmas time so they obviously wouldn't be eating ham.

I'm getting nothing done at work. I pick something up and have to put it down because something else comes along that's more important. I have about 5 somethings half-done on my desk. I might as well give up for the rest of the year. I've got this Friday off, next Friday off, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off. Yep, a month of complete unproductivity.

I got home tonight and wrestled with the dogs - all four of them. It makes Fritz so happy when I play with him. Steffi has run out of turkey breast so I've been feeding her Fritz's bologna. She begs a lot, like she's still hungry. So, I gave them some of the puppies' Moist and Meaty dog food.

I need to start thinking about things to write about. Not for blog writing. But for book writing. I've got my laptop and I haven't written anything yet.

And why does the local news have to be all bad news? I was planning to watch the weather tonight, but all they wanted to talk about was how this poor old man who can't walk or use his arms was scammed by his 'caregiver' - the caregiver stole the man's specially equipped van. I feel really bad for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder - they are already depressed and then they have to suffer with all the bad news on the news. I've personally seen so many funny video shows that I think I'm now watching reruns. Although, I don't think some of the supposed funny videos are all that funny. Some are serious with possible injuries. That's not funny.

La La La

Winnie sang for the first time this morning. It warmed her mother's heart to hear it, it was so cute. I think she's learning from watching the funny videos shows.

There was a cute long haired chihuahua in a car in the walmart parking lot this evening. I hope Winnie gets hair that long.

I bought some fabric today that was in the remnant bin at walmart. I will need to get to sewing or buy more storage things.

Today at the Christmas meeting, I ate some scalloped potatoes ( a weakness of mine) and a cold hot roll, a couple of carrots and celery sticks, and about three or four no-bake cookies. Luckily I have enough cookies for tomorrow's other christmas party so I don't have to make another batch tonight. And since I ate the cookies I decided to go off the diet for supper - I ate a calzone thing from walmart. And I'll be eating a pop-tart tonight. This man who does some work in our office about once a week came by to see me today and said I looked great. He's one of those harmless flirtatious kind of men, not afraid to say things that might not be politically correct. He always says "this isn't harassment..." before telling me how great I look. LOL.

Headache

I have one. I think I'm get them now because I'm going against my hypnosis and thinking about work at home. LOL. I am being sent miles and miles away on the 20th to attend another region's meeting because I'm such a great worker. Never, never, never be anything more than average. That is the one lesson I have learned in my life. I'm sure God is so pleased.

Tomorrow is our meeting and I made cookies for it. I was going to stick to the diet, but I'm so ticked with how work's going lately, I might just eat something. Probably not a lot. They are having ham and I'm not a fan of ham. Then Wednesday we have the office Christmas luncheon. I don't know if I'm eating then or not.

Right now I'm watching Funny Pets and People and everytime there's an animal on tv, Winnie barks. She really barks when the dogs on tv are barking and singing.

I saw a commercial for Alvin and the Chipmunks, the movie. It looks almost like it's worth watching.

Fed Ex Sucks

I ordered some dog worm medicine from dog.com and used fed ex to ship it because they deliver faster than dog.com's other shipping method. well, according to the tracking info - fed ex claims they delivered it and left it at the front door on december 1. Well I never got it. And I know what happened. The same thing that always happens with fed ex - they left it at the neighbor's house. Only this time the neighbor didn't tell me about it. They have dogs too. I don't know why Fed Ex thinks close is good enough when it comes to delivering packages but they just don't seem to care if they actually deliver the package to the right address. Well, I sent an email to dog.com telling them I didn't get my order and urged them to contact fed ex about their poor quality of service. I also asked for a refund, but I doubt I'll get it.

I've been Sewing........

Winnie has a new little outfit to wear. Isn't she cute?

And of course, PJ also has a new outfit to wear. She's cute too.

Laptop News

I bought that cooling thing for the laptop today. So, I had the laptop sitting on it and on for about 4 to 5 hours and the screen never went blank. I also didn't push the screen back very far. It was at a severe 90 degree angle. I don't know what the deal is with the blank screen.

I'm in the mood to watch cooking shows. I watched a Christmas thing on the Food Network this afternoon and I think there are Christmas shows on tonight. The Christmas edition of the Paula Deen magazine is pretty good. A few really good recipes in there I might write down. I'll have to read some of the articles.

I've stuck to the diet today. Of course, it's pretty easy to do that when you lay down for naps and just avoid the kitchen. LOL. There are two, count them two, Christmas luncheons at work this week - Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm bringing cookies to them, but I'm not eating. I'll stick to my slimfast bars.

Late Start

I got a late start to shopping today. I woke up at 5am and it was pouring down the rain. So, I decided to go back to bed after letting the dogs back in from their potty time. I didn't want to go to the store in the dark and in the rain. Once I did start shopping I spent a bunch of money. I bought a storage thing to hold my fabric and ribbon and stuff. And I bought a cooling mat thing for my laptop. And I bought a bunch of little stuff that added up.

I also bought baby spoons to eat with. I figure a baby spoon will help me take smaller bites and eat slower which means I should actually taste what I'm eating and will need less of it. It's a variation of the eat with chopsticks diet suggestion.

The costliest purchase today was my 1 year tracfone card. Now I just have to remember to activate it on the 18th or 19th. I have to renew by the 20th and I want to make sure I do it after my birthday. I'm trying to use my birthday as a reminder to buy the cards since I always forget.

I saw on tv that they have the microwave brownie bowl things with just 150 calories, so I bought a few today. They can take the place of poptarts a few nights a week. I'm eating one now for my midmorning snack. And thanks to the baby spoon, I'm tasting it and it's taking about 20 minutes or so to eat it. I think the baby spoon will come in real handy when I start eating ice cream again. It's too cold for ice cream right now.

Well, I bought three magazines this morning so I think I'll go and read about the "lose 8 pounds dieting just three days a week" fallacy.

Friday - Whoohooo!!!!!

I am so happy that it's Friday. I really need the weekend.

Well, tonight, I sort of went off the diet. I ate two lean pocket pizza subs. And I think I'm going to get a pop tart in a minute. At least it's not donuts and a whole deli pizza from walmart, so I'm still doing good. And I've read that changing up the number of calories I eat will keep my metabolism from getting stuck at a point that won't help me lose weight. So, I'm sure tonight is fine for the diet.

Even after downloading updates from windows, my laptop screen went blank again. I reset the power options so the display will never sleep or whatever. So, maybe that will help. But I had it set on 4 hours and it stopped sooner than that. I wonder if setting the laptop in front of the desktop monitor would have anything to do with it.

I had funny videos on tv tonight and there was a baby throwing a tantrum on there. Well, Winnie started barking at the baby and she wouldn't stop. And then Fritz started barking. I have a headache. At least Fritz and Winnie are thinking alike. Fritz actually played with the puppies tonight. I was thrilled to see that.

Well, Samantha Brown's First Cruise is on the Travel Channel right now, so I think I'll go and watch that. And get that pop tart.

Almost Friday!!

I can't wait for the weekend. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with my weekend. But I can't wait for it to get here.

Just an FYI - Staples and PayPal are horrible. Staples claimed a dollar on my prepaid credit card and it took forever for them to give it back. And now paypal has claimed a dollar and they haven't done anything yet and it's been since 11/29/07. Just like the amount of payment made via paypal, it's stuck in pending transactions and hasn't been deducted from my card yet. I wonder if the business who was supposed to get my payment ever got my payment? I really plan to avoid both Staples and Paypal from now on.

Still working on the hypnosis. I think I need a lot more practice.

I have a heated ice scraper. I tried it this morning but it didn't do any good. I don't know if I didn't let it heat up enough or if it's just not a good product. I was Freezing with a capital F this morning. I don't like winter.

I just read this thing on fark.com that said that the Associated Press is wanting people to pay for putting their news stories on their blogs. I guess if someone wrote a paper in high school then the Associated Press won't let them quote any of their articles. And Heaven help Matt Lauer the next time he says, "Senator, a recent report by the Associated Press claims..." NBC will be paying a price for that, I'm sure.

I've lost a pound since Monday. I'm feeling an urge to go off my diet this weekend. I really shouldn't. I'm doing so well. I am going to try to stick to it. Of course, watching the food channel isn't helping, but sometimes there just isn't anything else to watch.

Since Monday

Well, I downloaded some windows updates for the laptop so maybe the screen thing won't happen again.

I got some fabric today in the mail. It's very pretty. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.

We're getting snow today. I had to park the car down at the main road and walk up to the house. It's supposed to warm up so the snow shouldn't stick around too long. I took a couple of pictures earlier.

I missed my mid-afternoon snack today. I might have to eat something extra later. I haven't even had my pop-tart yet tonight.

Well, darn.....

My brand new laptop has a glitch. I was playing a game when suddenly, the screen went blank. I couldn't do anything. So, I pushed in the power button until the laptop turned off and then restarted the machine. I don't know why it did that. I even have this little slanted thing for the laptop to sit on now that is supposed to increase airflow so the laptop won't overheat. Just in case it was the 20 minute turn off the display setting, I changed it to 4 hours. I figure if I'm on the power cord instead of the battery I can let it stay on for longer than 20 minutes. But it shouldn't have turned off if I was doing something. But maybe it does. I don't know much about laptops or windows vista. Except that everyone says Vista sucks.

Still Practicing

I'm still practicing with the hypnosis. I think I will need more practice and the tape. I might record the script this evening.

I've reorganized the desk area so I can put the laptop here and not have it in the way. It's now resting on top of my printer. By reorganizing, I mean I shoved a bunch of crap in a hidey-hole. Now I can really concentrate on writing because I have the laptop that can be completely dedicated to it. Except for that fun new Memory game that came with Vista. I have a feeling I'll be playing that a lot.

I Got It

Well, I got the laptop at walmart this morning. It keeps wanting me to connect to the internet. I will either have to find another phone cord or move this huge desk and get the cord off my desktop pc. The computer I bought is a Toshiba and it has an AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core processor tk-53, 15.4 in widescreen display, 2048 mb ddr2 sdram, 120 GB hard drive, dvd supermulti drive, something about wireless and expresscard slot. Here's what I know about it: it's loud and it took a really long time to boot up when I first turned it on. I think it might be faster now that all the preliminary stuff has been selected. Right now I'm charging the battery so I have the laptop in front of my desktop monitor. Who knew I'd be computer rich one day, given how much I dislike computers. I tried typing on the keyboard of the laptop and it's weird. I'm going to have to get used to typing flat. All my regular keyboards I have propped up at an angle. And I will need to find a place to put this thing. I have no desk space in the house. I've got stuff piled up everywhere. And this isn't the ideal place for the laptop right now. I keep reaching for my desktop mouse to control the laptop. LOL.

I took the puppies to see mom and dad this morning. They dogsat while I went to walmart and then we visited when I got done. While there, I chewed on gum instead of trying to snack. I ended up missing my mid-morning snack altogether. So, that's good. We'll see how hungry I get this afternoon. I really should eat my mid-morning snack to keep my metabolism up.

Pledge Drive

Public Television is having a pledge drive and they are showing all kinds of music programs. Right now I'm watching Barry Manilow's Songs of the Seventies and later the Celtic Woman's Christmas Special is on.

Fritz ate part of a new squeaky toy I bought this morning. I got it from Walmart and it's painted so it might be a Chinese lead paint special. There haven't been any recalls on painted squeaky toys that I know of, but you never know. I had to take the toy away from Fritz. It isn't healthy to begin with to eat plastic of any kind, painted or not.

So far I've stuck to the diet today. I tried this new drink, well new for me, it's Fuze Slenderize. I read about it in a magazine. It's supposed to help you lose weight, but you'd have to drink it all the time I think. And walmart sells it for something like $1.78 a bottle, not cheap enough to drink all the time. It was okay though.

Dad went to an auction and bought two and a half office desks and some tables and something else I didn't hear about. He brought the desks up here to store. The one big wooden desk is in good shape and I wouldn't mind having it for a sewing desk. But I have no where in the house to put it. It has a big and wide top. The dogs were very happy to see Dad. They like seeing anyone, but Dad feeds them catfood.

I practiced the hypnosis again this afternoon and was rudely brought out of whatever it was I was in by the phone ringing. Whoever called didn't even leave a message.

Practicing

I've been practicing with the hypnosis book. It's hard to stay focused on it when the dogs are making noise that would distract me. I think I've been partially successful. With more practice I should get better at it. I did buy a mini-cassette recorder so I could record all of the suggestions and stuff. Once I get everything worded the way I want it, I'll record it.

I wrapped the last two Christmas presents today. Winnie jumped on the paper, not trying to help me.

I spent way too much at walmart this morning. I had to use my credit card because I was $5.00 short on cash. I hope Walmart will still have the laptops on sale tomorrow when I get there. The sale starts tomorrow but as I posted after Thanksgiving, those employees buy up everything before the customers get a chance. I thought Walmart was supposed to be a bad employer who doesn't give its employees decent wages and breaks and insurance and stuff. How can these employees even afford to buy things there? The laptop I'm considering buying is the more expensive of the two on sale. So, maybe there will be one left when I get there. Maybe Walmart sold out of the ones on Black Friday because they were Dells. Maybe people won't be in a hurry to buy a Compaq or a Toshiba.

One of the 'spent way too much' purchases this morning was a Michael Buble cd. I really like him and this cd is really good. It's the self-titled one from I think 2003? That's the date on the cd cover.

I'm still good with my diet. I haven't worked out on the treadmill, but I am doing pilates and walking in place.