Happy It's the Weekend

I am very, very happy that this is the weekend. I have been very tired lately. So tired that I decided to eat salads for supper to see if the change in diet would help. And I started eating some nuts since they have some vitamins and minerals in them. I've switched my work hours so I can get home a half hour earlier so maybe I will be able to do some workouts of some kind in the evenings. I'm hoping this is just a diet and exercise problem and not the nasty flu that's been going around at work. Apparently, if you catch that flu, you keep it for about three weeks. It's a good thing I have an OCD thing about hand washing and that I take 1000 mg of Vitamin C every day. Sure, some doctors claim vitamin C doesn't help with colds and flus, but I'm not listening to them. And work has been exhausting too. Not the part where I do my job, but the part where I have to fight with other people who don't want to do theirs so they make excuses and try to screw up to try to get out of doing their jobs. I may have to take a sick day soon if this keeps up. I'm not looking to take any vacation days until the end of the month and I don't think I can last that long.

I now have all of the paperback editions of the Alex Rider series. Waiting for the latest book to come out in paperback. I can't wait to see where this all leads. I did read the last few pages of the next book I have to read and found out how it ends.

I bought a shower curtain at walmart this morning. It was on clearance and it's a picture of fish and dolphins swimming underwater. I'm hoping to somehow hang it up on my bathroom wall so I can have something pretty to look at when I'm taking a bath.

I've been watching BBC World news lately. It seems like no matter how horrible the news is, those british accents make it sound better than it is.

I also got the new Diana Palmer romance novel the other day in the mail. I really wish she would stop writing these 'tragic' characters. It seems like lately all of her main characters have suffered tragedies and all of their relatives die and some of their relatives were mean and nasty. It gets depressing and sometimes so depressing that the happy ending doesn't compensate. It's a good thing I read mostly dialogue. I can skip a lot of the narration about the characters' hard lives. I can't skip the narration in the Alex Rider books because Alex is often on his own and doesn't have an opportunity to describe the action to another character with dialogue.

PJ has become a picky eater. I give her a choice of three kinds of dog food now and she may eat a few pieces if I'm lucky. She would rather have doggie treats or some of my biscuits so she doesn't want to eat the dog food.

If someone was to take a look at my living room closet, he or she would think I was a very weird person. I have several, and I mean a lot of, packages of puppy pads in there. I have to buy a lot. Walmart is selling quilted ones and they are wonderful, but I don't know how long walmart will sell quilted ones. So, I have to buy as many packages as I can in case walmart stops selling them. They stopped selling the 72 count packs. They were cheaper and 1 sqare inch bigger than the Hartz brand that they are currently selling.

Sometime this month I plan to buy a steam cleaner and clean my carpets. The cleaning will probably happen when I take those vacation days at the end of the month.

I bought these felt easter baskets today that are in the shape of bunny rabbits. They come with magic markers and you can color the bunnies however you want. I plan to turn them into little outfits for Winnie and PJ.

Nuts

The fanatic Christian woman at work claimed today that she doesn't watch any news on tv because it's all lies. She gets her news from a few carefully selected websites on the internet (as I pointed out - because no one lies on the internet). This is the same woman who listens to I think it's Sean Hannity on the radio and says that the we will end up in Hell if a democrat becomes President. I think she blames the democratic congress for the whole Iraq war mess when it was the President who wanted to go there in the first place. I bet one of her carefully selected websites is the Fox News website. I so wanted to debate with her today but I decided against it. It's much less stressful to keep my mouth shut. She is so republican and she won't admit it. She is so narrowminded and judgmental and calls it being a good christian. And she's one of those women who only wears dresses.

This other woman in the office has a son who was at one time a wild man and now is a faithful churchgoer - going so far as to preach at some of the services. She said her son won't listen to the news because it's all lies and that if she even dares to mention a recall on a blender, he will tell her it's a lie and tells her to stop watching the news. She says he won't even read a newspaper.

I'm starting to see a pattern here - churchgoers and news is all lies. Hmmm......

Still Reading

I'm still reading the Alex Rider books. I finished the second one last night - I stayed up late to finish it. I just started the third one this evening. I can read this one and the fourth one, but the fifth one, I had to order from the web. I have the sixth one and the seventh one is out in hardback, and will be released in paperback I think in April. I don't want to have to skip the fifth one so I might wait until I get that one to read it before moving on to the sixth one.

So, I stayed up late last night and today I had to take a nap. It was nice just laying in bed for a change. I got up this morning regular time - 5am and discovered that Steffi was sick again. She had thrown up and she wasn't interested in eating at all. So, before I went to the store, I gave her some pepto bismol. I went to the store and bought the puppies yet another kind of dog food. I don't know why they can't make dog food that dogs think are just like the treats. The puppies have no trouble eating treats. I found the puppies a few new toys at walmart and bought yet two more packs of puppy pads. I have to get them when I can because I can't depend on walmart to always sell them. I brushed the dogs today and was chased up and down my driveway by the neighbor dogs when I went to get the mail this afternoon. I also ordered birthday presents for my sister and niece. Tonight while I was on the phone with mom, PJ came into the living room holding up one of her hind legs. She must have hurt it somehow but after a while she started walking on it again.

Despite the 3 hour nap, I am still feeling a little tired. My eyes are droopy.

Can't Put It Down

I found new books to collect. The Alex Rider series. The books are about a 14 year old boy who is recruited by MI6. I found them at walmart a few months ago and thought I might buy one to see what it was like, but kept talking myself out of it because I didn't want to spend the money. Well, today I bought the first one, Stormbreaker, and it was great. I went back to walmart tonight after work and bought the next two books in the series. I think walmart has all of them except one. I'll have to get that one from the web. And there's a new one coming out in April that I will have to get. Even though these books are meant for kids, I thought this first one was really good. You all should read them too.

Sucky Day At Work

It never pays, and I mean never pays to do your job well. I do my job well and what do I get for it? I get special jobs in which I get harassed and abused by other people's supervisors. I don't know if the backstabber hates me or hates my boss, but either way she's proving just how much of a little witch she is. If I ever get out of this special project I'm going to make a point of telling my boss who made me do it that it's only causing me to get abused. It's not helping anything, anyone, anywhere at any time. I told my immediate supervisor, who didn't have a say in this special project, that if this keeps up, I'm filing paperwork against the witch's behavior. Either that, or I'll look for another job.

Busy Day Off

Gee, what all have I done today?

1. Cleaned the filters for the vacuum cleaner
2. Gave Winnie and PJ a bath
3. Cooked a turkey for Steffi
4. Washed some dishes
5. Vacuumed the dining room
6. Dusted the buffet/hutch
7. Cleaned the dog hair off the roller bar of the vaccum cleaner
8. Gathered up some leaves out of the carport
9. Spent a half an hour on the treadmill
10. Took a nap.

Winnie and PJ Have New Dresses

I made these dresses this weekend. You can't see it, but Winnie's has two little straps encircling her neck, sort of like PJ's dress.

First Day Off

For this, my first day of my three day weekend, I lounged around in bed for a while. I started the day at 5am, like every other day, and after feeding the dogs and cat I got ready and went to the store. I got home and put the groceries away, ate a sandwich I bought at the store, then went to bed for a while. I had brushed the puppies before leaving for the store and this even I brushed them again. It's a hit and miss kind of thing because they won't stand still.

After the nap, I started work on another outfit for the puppies. I'm going to try to put a skirt on this outfit. I've never done skirts before. Hopefully it will turn out.

I went out and got the mail, using the car to get to the mailbox. When I got back to the house, I parked just a little bit away from my parking spot so I could gather up some leaves to get rid of them.

I ate way too much today. I had hopes of sticking to my diet today but that didn't happen. Hopefully it will tomorrow.

Oh, I bought new dog food for the puppies. I was hoping to use it for snacks and treats, but when I put some in a bowl and sat it down on the floor Winnie just started eating it right out of the bowl. She's never eaten her supper that way before. So, it looks like this will be breakfast and supper food for them. PJ ate pretty well too. This food is the dry Beneful stuff.

3 Day Weekend

Yay!!! It's Friday night and the start of my 3 day weekend. Thank you Presidents Washington and Lincoln for doing so many things to earn yourselves a National holiday for us to celebrate. Have you ever noticed the presidents who have holidays are war presidents? Why can't we celebrate peaceful presidents?

Well, I felt like celebrating Valentine's day yesterday so I went completely off my diet. I'm still off the diet but hopefully I'll be back on it and the treadmill tomorrow. Last night I had pizza, an orange swirl cake of some kind (a square in a small plastic container-not a whole cake), and some chocolate candy. Today I had some pizza left and a bunch of candy. I finished off the pizza and ate some of the candy. I'm not a big fan of dark chocolate so I know I'll be leaving that for mom and dad. I was going to give them the leftover pizza from last night but I decided to eat that. At least I didn't eat everything all in one sitting like I would have done a few months ago. And I'm not really interested in eating the chocolate. I was really wanting peanut butter cups.

I bought the last two packs of the really good puppy pads that Walmart sells. I got them today. I hope they put more out for sale.

I've been very, very tired this week. A couple of days I've even gone back to bed before going to work. Maybe I can catch up on some sleep this weekend.

I got my state tax refund yesterday. Not even two full weeks and I got my refund. Who needs to E-file?

There are birds chirping on tv. I'm watching golf and they are in Hawaii. Well, Winnie doesn't like to hear the birds chirping. So, when she does hear them, she barks and keeps barking. I guess I won't be moving to Hawaii any time soon.

Winnie Knows What She Likes

And it isn't Kanye West. I was watching the Grammys last night and when Kanye West started performing, Winnie started barking. She didn't like his first performance. But, when he started singing about his mother, she didn't bark anymore.

It's very cold in here tonight. I made some biscuits to try to stay warm. I even have the furnace turned up.

Tonight starts the Westminster dog show. I'm planning to watch it tonight and tomorrow night.

We're supposed to get 1 to 3 inches of something tonight. The national weather service said just one inch of snow, but other forecasters are calling for 1 to 3 inches. And it's supposed to warm up over night so that it will be rain by mid-morning.

I spent a fortune at walmart this morning. I bought two packages of puppy pads - they are really nice ones that are quilted. I didn't see them the other day when I was there, so I thought I better buy some while I could find them today. And I bought a kit for my digital camera printer.

Mom told me tonight that the post office was going to raise the price of a stamp again. I'd better buy more of the any price stamps before the price goes up.

Sunday

Well, I had three things to do on my list today and I've done them all. I vacuumed the living room to pick up Fritz's hair. I've printed out a bunch of pictures off my digital camera and put them in the photo album. And I did my laundry.

I got on the treadmill today and walked for almost an hour. My mp3 player went through all of the songs on it and I started over. I don't have very many songs on the player - not because it won't hold many, but because I just wanted Michael Buble on there.

I needed the exercise. I came home from mom and dad's and made a small pan of biscuit bread that was covered in garlic-parmesan butter. It was good but boy am I stuffed.

I also took some bleach water and washed down the bottom half of the exposed walls in the house. I think Fritz has been marking territory.

Valentines

Here are Winnie and PJ sporting their latest fashions - their Valentine's Day outfits.

More on the Blogs

Last post, I wrote about Are You Happy Now, Norman Mailer?. I want to expand on that a bit. The author of that blog, Len, I met thanks to the NanoWriMo contest. I got into reading about his novel, Michael Drayton, Detective Guy, and really can't wait until it gets published. I will buy a copy as soon as it comes out and review it here. It's going to be good.

New blogs

I added three new blogs to the blogs of note section. Chihuahua Craziness and Ramsey and Pablo are blogs about dogs, specifically chihuahuas. And Are you happy now, Norman Mailer is a blog by the guy who's writing the Michael Drayton novel.

Puppy Bowl

I'm watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. Every time the puppies on tv bark, Winnie barks. I wish she would get off my lap and lay in the floor. I can't type with her here.

Traditions

I just realized yesterday that I seem to always do my taxes on the 3rd day of February. So, I guess this is my Superbowl tradition. LOL.

I made new patterns for Winnie and PJ's dresses. I thought they needed to be a bit bigger so I enlarged them. I did this at my dining room table and I have some storage boxes sitting next to the table. Winnie got up on the box and then put her front paws on the table. She won't be able to do that when I have the next big family dinner.

I had Winnie and PJ at mom and dad's today and both of the puppies got scared of a big fly that buzzed into the living room. PJ shook and shook and eventually went inside her pet carrier to get away from the fly.

It's warmed up nicely today. I don't know how warm it is, but the sun's out and I'm sure ice is melting everywhere. If it was just a bit warmer, I'd go outside and take in some of that sun. Any day over 30 degrees is a good Winter day to me.

Splurge

I spent too much today at walmart. I bought a Furreal Friends Baby Pig. It is sooooo cute!!!! And I bought an mp3 player out of the toys section. I didn't get a 'real' mp3 player because you'd have to talk to the walmart workers and they would have to open the glass case and everything. This one I bought works. There's some weird kind of scratchy thing going on with it, like a cassette tape that gets garbled. But it only lasts a few seconds. And this mp3 player is blue, has little hearts on it and rhinestones. So, it's cute. It took me a while to figure out how to work the thing. I couldn't even find where you put the battery for a while. There were no directions in the book about inserting the batteries.

I haven't done anything else today. I need to dye my hair, cook a turkey and do my taxes. I think I can dye my hair tonight and cook the turkey in a little bit. I'll wait to do that until after I go see if there's any mail. I don't want to leave the house with food cooking.

I'm giving the soup diet a break for a few days. I bought some flour tortillas and some chi-chi's shredded chicken fajita stuffing and some lettuce, tomato and low fat cheese and I'm making some 'pizzas' in the toaster oven. I can tell my diet's been pretty bland lately because the I think the chicken stuff is not agreeing with my tummy. Ooh, and I bought these little 4 ounce stoneware ramekins that were on clearance. So, I can make little chicken fajita potpie things too.

Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad it's the weekend. I stopped at the bank and Rite Aid after work today and it was spitting snow. We aren't supposed to get any accumulation though. That's good since I have to do my Walmart shopping tomorrow morning. I did stop by Walmart tonight and I got a 12 inch turkey sub from their deli. I wanted something with lettuce on it. To try to cut the calories, I cut the sub in half, tossed half of the bun away and doubled the fixings up on the part of the bun I had left. It made for a big sandwich. Next time I might take some of the turkey off and feed it to the dogs. I fed them some of the cheese that came with the sandwich.

I have to remind myself to do my taxes this weekend. I forgot all about them today and didn't remember until I read my last post.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to make the puppies' a Valentine's Day outfit. I'm sure I have fabric that would work but I don't know if I'm that inspired.

Cold and Tired

I'm tired this week. I've been getting enough sleep and eating the same thing I always eat but I'm tired. Well, I am eating biscuits now - white flour - that might make me sleepy. I went to bed around 8:30 pm last night. I get up at 5am so that was more than 8 hours of sleep.

I lost 2.4 pounds this week. I couldn't stand it any longer and I had to weigh myself this morning. Four more pounds and I'll reach the weight I put on my driver's license.

It's cold around here too. I have sweats on and I'm cold. I don't really want to wash the dogs' water dishes because I don't want my hands getting wet. I have such a hard time with dry, cracked skin in the winter.

I guess I'll be filling out my tax returns this weekend. I have all the information I need now to get them done.

I bought these little carbon packs that you put inside cat litter boxes. I'm using them for the puppies' puppy pad trashcan. I think they do help control the smell.

Only one more day to go and I'll have a weekend off. I can't wait. I went to one grocery store tonight so I won't have to go this weekend. Tomorrow night after work, I'll go to the bank and to Rite Aid to put money on my prepaid credit card. There are a couple of birthdays coming up in March I need to buy presents for.

I'm watching anything but golf this week. A friend of mine on another blog has renamed the Golf Channel to Tiger Golf Channel because of how the media devotes so much time to Tiger Woods. I have to agree with my friend on this and am very pleased that there are people out there who are seeing this imbalance in golf coverage. So, I've been watching other things to avoid Tiger Week on the Golf Channel. I've been watching Cash in the Attic on BBC America and Squash on the Tennis Channel. Squash is a hard sport for me to watch. The ball moves so fast that you can barely see where it hits.

Promises, Promises

Have you ever noticed that it's a lot easier to break a promise you make to yourself than it is to break one made to someone else? I said I was going to work out this week, and here I sit. You would think I would mean as much to me as anyone else. But, in my defense, the lying, backstabbing boss at work tried to get me into trouble again. Of course, I have the evidence to support what I do, but she just ticked me off again so I decided I couldn't get on the treadmill and be trapped there with that crap stuck in my head.

Speaking of work, today I was trying to dig out all of the shredded paper that had gotten packed into the guts of the shredder and I cut my hand. I have about 4 cuts but they are all about the size of paper cuts so I didn't fill out any incident reports. They just hurt like heck.

Ooh, one promise I did keep today - I did not weigh myself. I lost all that weight a couple of years ago and didn't weigh myself at all. I can do without the scales until I think I'm done.

Just a little bit ago, I was watching Winnie trot through the house with a toy in her mouth. She looked like she had a plan and was executing it, and it got me to thinking about something someone at work had said a while back. She said "I know pets don't have souls..." I can't imagine God would put living creatures on Earth and have Noah save them and not give them souls. Doesn't God value all life? Why would he show preference to one type of life and not others? I think people may have linked the idea of a soul to heaven, thinking that the soul ascends to Heaven when the body dies. And since these people believe dogs and other animals can't think about a heaven because they don't have preachers telling them what to think like we people do, then animals must not have souls. Here's my theory: the animals, and pets especially, are agents of God testing us humans to see if our souls are worthy of ascendence into Heaven. If we're good to pets then it's a telling sign about how good we are as people. And I have a problem with people thinking that Heaven is some reward or a bribe: do what the preacher says you need to do and you'll get in. I think God would rather we not need a bribe to be decent human beings.

Completely Off the Diet

Today I went completely off the diet. At least there was no pizza. But I'm hoping to do the treadmill every night this week, except for Friday. Friday after work I'll have to go to the bank. I did do a mile and a half on the treadmill today. That's better than what I used to do when I would eat like this. I shouldn't have weighed myself this morning. I think that sent me off the diet. The scale showed that I gained back what I lost last week - again. Another reason to get on the treadmill during the week.

The puppies went to visit their grandparents today, and they've been sleeping pretty much the whole time since. They wake up every now and then to see what's going on. Steffi had an upset tummy a little while ago. Although it sounds unbelievable, I think she had trouble because of an empty tummy. I gave her a few doggie treats and then a bit later she came into the kitchen thinking it was time for supper.

I tried using the whole wheat flour I bought for the puppies' dog treats to make biscuits today. They were nasty. I even cut it with white, self-rising flour and they weren't good. So, the birds will have something to snack on when I get them tossed outside.

Winnie and PJ in Their Party Dresses

Saturday Notes

I did 2.43 miles on the treadmill today to try to simulate the exercise I get when I work. I took a pedometer to work one day and found out that I walk about a mile during the workday. And since last night I ate a sub sandwich and went over my calories, I thought I needed to get a little more exercise today. I also ate some soup today that I added cheese too so I had to work off some of those calories. I had intended to avoid naps today but I ended up laying down for about 45 minutes.

I've been watching tennis this week. The big controversy was over Ana Ivanovic's shoes. They squeaked. Heaven forbid. One excuse-seeking loser blamed the squeak rather than her poor play for her result. Shoes squeak. My boots squeak at work even when they haven't been through water puddles. According to some articles I've read online, the blame for the squeak lies with the new court surface they have there. So, really, the blame falls with the Australian Open people who chose that surface for their courts. I don't see the excuse-seeking loser attacking tournament directors or sponsors. Of course not. She needs to get into tournaments to make money. And I heard plenty of squeaking from a bunch of the players so it seems to me to be the surface and not just one player's shoes. On the men's side, Novak Djokovic will be meeting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. I'm supporting Djokovic in this match.

Some things I've done recently: cleaned the microwave, made pretty sun dresses for Winnie and PJ (I'll have to post pictures later), made some doggie treat dough using this whole wheat flour I bought yesterday, washed some doggie blankets and towels.

I don't know what I'll be watching on tv tonight. Figure Skating is on but I haven't checked out what else is on. This week I read a really good book. It's an old Harlequin romance by Violet Winspear called "Love in a Stranger's Arms". I read it at work and it was torture because I had to get to the end of the book to find out about the beginning for the hero and heroine. The book began with the heroine having amnesia and not remembering her husband. He was a domineering, forceful Spaniard, but you could tell that he loved her. He did everything for her, just in a take charge manner. She fought him because she thought she had been in love with someone else before her amnesia and that he was keeping her away from the love of her life. And she opposed the hero's former career as a matador. Well, at the very end of the book, she gets her memory back and we find out that the man she loved was in fact the hero. They had fallen in love and she left him when his last bullfight resulted in him getting gored and losing an eye. He pursued her and found her in trouble with the law. He married her and brought her back to Spain to save her from torture and death at the hands of the harsh government who had her in custody. During the trip to Spain she suffered her amnesia. This book was torture for me because I could only read it during my two 15 minute breaks and my half hour lunch break. I could hardly put it down to get back to work. That's why I like to read books I've read before at work. I can put them down more easily because I know how they end.

Not Happy

Well, I didn't lose any weight during the three days I had off. In fact, the scales showed that I gained the .8 pounds I lost last week back! And I didn't eat any extra on my diet. I think it's because I took naps Saturday and Sunday. I laid down Monday on the couch with the dogs but I don't think I slept much. So, no more naps for me. I'll be checking to see what happens with my weight but I'm almost convinced to go back to the good old days of not weighing myself. I also think the pilates might have led to a weight gain due to building muscle.

I'm torn tonight over what to watch on tv. American Idol is on at 8pm but the Australian Open Tennis tournament is also on tv.

Busy Bee

Well, I did some work today. I bathed the puppies, extracted a hairball from the bathtub drain, vacuumed the living room, cooked a turkey for steffi, made cookies for the dogs, washed all the dishes up and worked out off and on throughout the day.

It was 10 degrees this morning at 5am so it didn't get down to the 0 to 5 they had predicted. But I'm sure there was a wind chill to factor in.

Well, tennis coverage today has essentially been all reruns. I've seen the same thing over and over again. I would complain more but I can't spell the names of the players I want to complain about.

I weighed myself this morning and there was no change from yesterday morning. I wonder if it was because of the nap I took yesterday. I took one today but I've worked out more today to compensate. I don't know if it will do any good.

I've got one more day off, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Hopefully, I can get some extra exercise in tomorrow too. I've been sticking to the diet so I know I can't really gain weight.

A Change of Routine

Today I took the puppies to see their grandma and grandpa. Usually, that's a Sunday trip, but as tonight is supposed to be a chilly 0 to 5 degrees, I thought it would just be too cold to go out tomorrow. I took the useless mouse traps with us and dad managed to fix them for me.

I came home and did some laundry, took a nap, finally fixed the puppies' bed cover that I started making a while back. I made sure all my dishes were washed up in case my water freezes overnight. And I read one of the Violet Winspear books I recently got in the mail. It helped me to pass the time and not be tempted to snack. I've stuck to the diet today and most of the workout. I didn't work out the arms.

I've been watching the Australian Open Tennis tournament. In the last two days they've shown Roger Federer's 5 set match at least three times on two networks. Enough already. There's other tennis they could be showing. I know it was a good match. They could show it again after the tournament's over.

Frustrations

The D-Con mouse killing people are selling defective products. I've bought I don't know how many see no mouse touch no mouse mouse traps that didn't work and now the regular covered mouse traps aren't working either. I have three that won't set.

Prevention.com, the people that have the Prevention magazine, has a hijacker named Alli, the weightloss drug. Everytime I try to calculate the number of calories I need to eat for a certain weight, the website redirects me to the Alli page. Curse those people. Obviously Prevention.com must be getting paid a ton of money to essentially turn their website over to the drug maker.

I might go to bed early tonight. I am pretty tired after sitting up late watching American Idol the last couple of nights.

I'm hoping to avoid going out this weekend, except for the trip to mom and dad's, so I did my walmart shopping this morning and will go to Krogers after work.

I'm stil dieting. Working out a little bit. Watching the tennis channel right now. It's sunny and hot in Australia. Cold and snowy here.

Diet Update

I've lost 2.8 pounds since last Wednesday. Yay for me!!

I watched American Idol last night and will watch it tonight. I don't like staying up late. I usually get to bed around 9pm or so.

Sunday Notes

Since switching to a different kind of mouse trap, I have caught two mice in two days. Yay for me. Or maybe not. I don't know that I like what it might say about my house that I have two mice to catch. Hahaha.

I've kept to the diet and sort of exercise program. I did do a little more in exercise today. I moved around to Michael Buble music in my living room.

I went to mom and dad's today. The puppies, of course, went with me. While they all watched the news, I got on mom's computer and watched some video with her high speed internet. I saw an interview with Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal and then watched some Michael Buble music videos - that was why I was playing his music later at home.

We are expecting some bad weather sometime this week. The weather forecast keeps changing - gee there's a surprise. I hope I can get to the store sometime during the week and then get up to the house. I need to get some dog food for Winnie and PJ in case I get snowed in this weekend.

I tried to make the cover for the dogs' bed yesterday. It's supposed to have elastic in it and go over the plastic storage bin that I'm using for their bed. Well, I broke two needles trying to sew it and then I lost my threading device inside it when I was trying to thread the elastic through it. I will have to try again.

Whooohoooo!!!! It's Friday!!

I am so happy it's friday.

I got my order from the never order from them again people of Miles Kimball. One of the things I ordered was one of those pedal exercisers. I have to put it together and then I'll see how it works.

The funny video show has some really cute dog videos on tonight.

I weighed myself this morning and I'm down another 0.4 pounds. One day the scale will go up and then I'll be completely devastated.

I went shopping this morning. I bought a Michael Buble cd, some remnant fabric, and a Womans World magazine.

Well, I think the dogs are going to get into the package stuffing so I'd better go. It's just brown paper. Not anything poisonous.

Good for Me

I sat beside a no-bake cookie all day today and didn't eat it. A woman at work brought some in today and I just had to take one. She always compliments me on the ones I make and she seemed so excited about making a batch of her own. I had to take one to show her that I support her efforts. But I didn't eat it. I wrapped it up and brought it home. I'm going to give it to mom and dad this weekend.

It was raining tonight when I came home from work, so the neighbor's dogs weren't out to chase me.

I finally got my phone bill. It's about time.

There's something wrong with my scales. I weighed myself yesterday and then today and it said I had lost 1.4 pounds in just one day. I don't think that was right, but it sounds good and it's encouraging.

Well, time to watch the National Body Challenge. And get some ice cream.

I love putting those two sentences together. LOLOL

Fed Up

Tonight, the neighbor's dogs were chasing my car again as I drove up to my house. So, I stopped in the middle of the driveway and got out of my car. The three-legged dog took off. The black Lab waited until I picked up some sticks and threw at him before he took off. They have been chasing my car every day I work for I know weeks. It's absurd that their owners don't care enough to keep an eye on them. I guess that's how that one lost its leg.

Hillary Clinton won a primary yesterday. That's good. John McCain won too. I haven't been impressed with him since he started siding with Bush.

The phone company is late in sending me my phone bill. I may have to call them if I don't get it soon and tell them to send me a bill.

Worked out this morning and stuck to my diet again. If I lose 2 pounds a week, I can be at my goal weight by the end of April. That seems like a long time, but if I just go week by week, maybe it will go by fast. Not that I want to wish my life away or anything....

I got the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes packet today in the mail. Why don't they sell magazines anymore? Aren't they a clearinghouse for publishers???? I don't want the crap they are trying to sell, I'd be more likely to take out a subscription to a magazine. Oh well, for 4 easy payments of $2.99 I can buy some scratch-off lottery tickets and have some fun.

Thud!!!

I was driving up to the house tonight, and tonight, like every other night, the neighbor's dogs came running out to bark at and chase my car up to my house. One is a black lab and the other is a 3 legged german shepherd. Well, I was driving along, saw the lab to the side of me charging at me and then I heard a thud. The lab had run into the side of my car. I looked in my side view mirror and saw him standing there looking at me. He appeared fine and hopefully he will stop chasing that big thing on wheels that hurt him. The 3 legged dog chased me on up the driveway. If I was on flat land I could outrun that dog. LOL.

As for the diet, at the end of the night, I will have been on it for a whole week. Yay!! I didn't weigh myself last Wednesday when I started the diet because I didn't know if I was actually going to stick to it, but I have.

Today, I missed my mid-afternoon snack, so when I got home I couldn't take the puppies out for a walk. I stayed in and fixed my supper. Yesterday, it was warm enough to take Winnie and PJ outside. Winnie didn't quite know what to do out there. I think she might have even been a little scared. But she saw Fritz and realized that it was okay to be outside. PJ just ran around and sniffed everything. One time, we got into some soggy ground and Winnie stopped and held up her paw as if to say, "I'm not going to step into that. I'll get dirty." LOL.

Last night I watched the National Body Challenge show on Discovery Health. I liked that show better when they had a group of people of varying sizes all losing weight and competing in challenges for prizes. They would all come together for weigh-ins and you would follow their progress over a 15 or 16 week period. Now, the show follows one, in this case twins, person for 15 weeks and they condense it all into a one hour show. I think there are three more shows with three more sets of twins to follow this week.

A Dieter's Tool

I use the calorie counter at Prevention's website to see how many calories I should be eating for the weight I want to be. For instance, if I want to be 120 pounds and be sedentary, then the calorie counter tells me I should eat something like 1440 calories a day. This is the basis for my theory that if I eat the number of calories for the weight I want to be, with no exercise, then, over time, I should lose down to that weight since I'm not eating the number of calories needed to maintain the weight I'm currently at. Now of course, I do plan to work in a little exercise here and there. Just walking in place in front of the tv, or using my handweights, or doing some pilates in front of the tv. And my current calorie goal per day is about 1150 or so, so I'm actually eating a lot less than what would maintain the weight I want to be. But this is just because I want to try to lose weight a bit faster. I actually got on the scales just a bit ago to see where I was so I could use the calorie calculator to see how many calories I would need to maitain this weight.

Despite how depressing it is to see my current weight, knowledge is power and I now know my starting point. Plus, I thought I actually weighed more that I did, so that was good news. I figured I was about 6 pounds heavier than what the scale showed tonight.

Anyway, for all of you out there who might be curious about how many calories you need to maintain a certain weight, you can click here for the calorie counter at Prevention.com.

Diet Tricks

Just a couple of diet tricks that I've been using for a couple of weeks:

1. Plastic ice cream cups. You know those ice cream cups you used to get in elementary school - the little cups of ice cream with the cardboard covers? Well, I got a pack at walmart and one little cup is only 100 calories. So, I thought I could use the cups to control portion sizes of other varieties of ice cream. First I bought some fat free orange sherbet. Very strong orange flavor and very sweet, it makes you think you've had dessert. And by using the ice cream cups, I only get about 100 to 120 calories worth. One little cup holds about 3 ounces if you fill it to the same line that the original ice cream came up to. Yesterday I got fat free brownie ice cream. A 4 ounce serving of that is only 90 calories. I haven't opened that yet.

2. Baby spoons. I've been using baby spoons to eat my ice cream. I take longer to eat it and it makes me think there's more of it in a serving.

Brrr......

How has my Sunday been? Here's a rundown:

Took the puppies to see their grandparents. Mom loved the sd card I got her that had some of my pictures of my niece, nephew and the puppies on it. I played for a bit on her high speed internet - it was better than watching the Today Show. I didn't want to see the bad news of the day. So, I watched video of Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal instead.

We came home and I tried a different variety of Progresso Soup - Steak and noodles. I added some diced tomatoes because I had some in the fridge that I need to use. The soup is pretty good. Until now, I've stuck to the chicken varieties. This was a good change to keep me from getting tired of chicken soup.

Then I did some laundry and took Steffi and Fritz out for a walk. I walked for about 20 minutes outside. I was warm then. The sun came out for a little bit to brighten things up but it has since been blocked out by clouds. This has been a rainy weekend but as long as its warm I don't care. I also got a cutting off of the grape vines. I forget what I'm supposed to do with it, so I just put it in a glass of water. Maybe it will sprout and grow roots. I should look up what I'm supposed to do with it. Dad wants a vine to set out at his house.

I took a nap and didn't sleep long enough. The furnace woke me up. I can tell I didn't sleep enough because I woke up all jittery. Oh well, I'll sleep tonight. This is where I started getting cold.

I've got the tv on the food network, which is not a good idea when you're on a diet, but they are supposed to be having healthy recipes. I think they ran out of healthy recipes. Road Tasted had kringles and cheese and this next show has french cookies and cheese.

As for my diet, I've been sticking to it today. And thanks to my 20 minute walk, I think I'm going to come in under my 1150 calorie goal for the day. It depends on how hungry I get later I guess.

Steffi is also back on her diet. I cooked the turkey for her yesterday and she's back to eating it. I hope the turkey helps to reduce her cough some. It seems her cough gets worse when she eats bologna.

So Far, So Good, sort of......

So far, I've completed most of the things on my to do list. The only thing I have left to do is set the mouse trap. The sort of part comes from the diet aspect. As of now, I've eaten about 1040 calories. I don't think I'm going to stick to the amount I would like to ingest today - about 1150 or so. Maybe I'll walk in place for a bit later on to use up some calories.

Dad came up today and helped me cut Steffi's nails. She didn't like it at the time, but I'm sure she feels much better now. Her cough she's been having sounds a lot like Fritz's hair ball cough, so I gave her some hairball treats. Fritz threw up twice today. He must have been out in the pasture eating bad stuff again. Winnie and PJ just loved seeing their grandpa. Dad also helped me change a lightbulb in the bathroom. No, this isn't a how many west virginians does it take joke. The glass bowl covering the bulb had little screws to hold it in place and I didn't have enough hands to hold the bowl, the screws and the lightbulb. Plus Dad's taller than me and could reach the light better.

I had made a silent resolution to try to spend less money this year. After balancing my checkbook today, I see that I really need to try to follow that resolution (although I did manage to show an increase in savings this year despite all my spending). But, unfortunately, my shopping trip this morning resulted in a bill of $120.00 at Walmart. $30.00 of that was for shoes for work so that's an acceptable expense - the shoes I have been wearing have holes in them and my socks kept getting wet. And I bought a 512 MB sd card so mom can put pictures of the granddogs and grandkids on it to play in her digital photo frame she bought. I put some of my pictures of the puppies and the kids on it so Mom will have mine too. The only frivolous purchase I think was the large quantity of remnant fabric. I couldn't help it - there were some really nice colors and prints. But I think altogether that was probably only $8.00 or so.

Yay, it's Friday!!!!!!!

Whoohooo!!!! Another weekend. Gee, you'd think I worked all week with this attitude, huh? LOL. It's been the longest three days in my most recent memory. I'm glad it's the weekend. I think the snowy weather had something to do with it. And the headache I had for a day and a half. I actually went back to bed this morning before I left for work to try to get rid of my headache.

I got four books today in the mail. I love it when I get good mail. It's amazing how different people interpret the words 'acceptable' and 'good' in the Amazon marketplace. I got one book that was listed as acceptable and it's darn near perfect, and I got another one listed as good and I would call it acceptable. In my book, good means you don't want to throw it across the room because you don't want to hurt it. Acceptable means it's been abused but all the pages are still there and you can still read it.

Things to Do List for the weekend:
Go to the store
Cook a turkey
Trim Steffi's nails
Mouse Hunt

Snow - Yuck

Well, we got more snow last night and this morning but the sun came out and melted much of it. The bottom of the driveway as icy but I managed to drive up to the house tonight. I hope I can get down without any trouble tomorrow morning.

Steffi I guess is doing ok. I hesitate to comment on her condition because I never know if it's going to change. She does seem to be coughing more - part of her fluid issue that she's had for a few years.

Today, I got three of the books I've ordered from amazon marketplace sellers. I will have to start reading them. One is a Diana Palmer book. I'm sure I'll go through that one fast. Right now I've got Winnie on my lap, which means it's very hard to type, and I'm watching the golf channel. I'm about to head over to my golf blog to make some comments.

An Ugh Day

We got some snow last night. You'd think since it had been forecast that the road crews would have been out treating the roads and they would have been in decent condition this morning. Well, since I'm writing this post, you can correctly assume that the roads really sucked this morning. I didn't see where the road crews had done anything. Even on the interstate I drove 45 and 50 mph. I got off the interstate at the exit where my office is and slid (that's with studded snow tires). I didn't slide much, I was only going about 5 mph on the exit ramp. Tonight I came home to find a salt truck parked in the road right next to my driveway. I couldn't go to my driveway and turn around so I could then come back to the beginning of my road to park my car. I had to turn around in a neighbor's driveway. Why do I have to park at the road instead of driving up to the house? Well, for one thing, my driveway is very steep and it's dangerous to drive it when there's a lot of snow on. For another thing, the only neighbor who shares my driveway (the old woman who shovels her own driveway in the winter because she's been cursed by a lazy family who would rather play with dirt bikes than help her) has relatives who drive on the driveway and pack the snow down into solid ice. Her relatives live about 50 feet away from her. And they have to drive to her house. Talk about lazy. I only hope that when Karma, or God if you prefer, makes things right that it appears in the paper so I'll know that it's happened.

So far so good with Steffi. Although her tummy was making noises tonight. It could just be the nasty salami I fed her for supper. Dad gave me a whole pack that he'd never opened. I don't know why anyone would eat that. It looks disgusting. Anyway, I hope Steffi's going to be okay. Winnie found a cardboard paper towel roll and she's chewing on it. I think PJ stole a piece. And just to keep from leaving him out, Fritz got brushed tonight.

Back on the diet yet again. Maybe if I keep going back on the diet, then I'll be too busy going on the diet to go off of it. LOL. And with the walking I'm doing to get to and from my car, I'm even getting some exercise.

Well, it's supposed to be really cold tonight, with wind chills down to about zero. The cat even wanted to come in tonight, but she's got plenty of hidey-holes out around the house and the pasture that she can crawl into and stay warm. I'm going to have a really, really cold walk down to the car in the morning. But the weather forecast claims we'll be back up into the 50s by the end of the weekend.

Frustrations

I just spent about an hour on a shopping website trying to place an order. Every button I clicked came up with an error message. I'm never ordering from them again. It's Miles Kimball in case anyone wants to know what company has a sucky website.

Steffi is doing ok today I think. I hesitate to make a report because she's up then she's down, then she's up again. She ate and went out a couple of times and hasn't acted sick.

Right now on NBC is a figure skating show featuring the music of Seal. I only know the Kiss From a Rose song and I think Brian Boitano's performance to that song. So, I think I'm going to have to sit through 2 hours of Seal music that I've never heard of before and probably won't like just to get to see this one performance. And so far, there have been three songs and they all sound the same.

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.

Look Into My Eyes

I've read some of the hypnosis book. I don't know if it's going to work but I bet I'll at least be more relaxed.

And I've identified other things, other than diet/exercise, that I could use this self-hypnosis for. I'll have to work on this.

The book says I can make audio tapes to play so I might get a tape recorder or some other type of voice recorder.

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very glad it's Friday.

Last night, I went to bed and I was hungry. So, I added up all the calories I had eaten yesterday and they totaled about 1100 calories. That's 100 short of the 1200 I should be getting while I'm on a diet. But I didn't get up and eat anything. I just went to sleep. Since I didn't work out I didn't think it was too important that I ate a few too less calories yesterday. And I'm not working out tonight. Work ticked me off and if I tie myself to the treadmill I'll feel stuck there with work stuff running through my head. I might do pilates though. I can do that in front of the tv in here.

The puppies are no where near their puppy pads when they poopy while I'm at work. I think I will need to reposition the puppy pads to try to get them on track. I think maybe one of them is trying and the other one pounces on her because she wants to play.

I got the hypnosis book today in the mail. Did I tell you about that? I ordered it thinking I could hypnotize myself into thinking 1400 calories a day is soooooo filling that I just can't eat another bite. LOLOL.

I also bought this really cute penguin christmas decoration today at Rite Aid. It's acrylic and it lights up.

Well, I need to feed the dogs and get the puppies back in their pen.

Puppies Day Out

Well, today I had to go to work and I left the puppies out with Fritz and Steffi. I was worried that Fritz might eat them because he still growls and snaps at them, but when dad came over to check on them today, he said they were all sleeping. Winnie had appropriated the spare bed and had it all to herself. PJ was asleep on a pillow on the floor next to Steffi's chair. I got home and all four of them were prancing around happy to see me :)

I got the rest of the Christmas presents today in the mail, so now all I have to do is wrap them. I've hidden Mom and Dad's but my sister's I've left out. It's not likely she will see it since she's in Florida and I'm hundreds of miles away.

I've been 2 days now back on the diet and exercise program. It was hard to get on that treadmill tonight because I couldn't get work out of my head. Evil worker ticked me off today. But that was a worker from a different office. At least the workers in my office were happy to see me.

Well, I've got some work to do before bedtime. Wash the dogs' water dishes, put down new puppy pads.

Oh Happy Day!!!

I just read that Billie Piper will be returning to Dr. Who for at least one episode in 2008. I'm so excited. I'll have to keep an eye out for her episodes. Maybe she will finally get to hear the Doctor tell her he loves her.

Good News

I just read that NBC has ordered a full season of Chuck. Yay!!! Last night's episode was really good. It left off with a cliffhanger - does Sarah go with Bryce or does she stay with Chuck? Not sure what's going on in next week's episode. I'll have to watch it and see.

And an addendum to the Staples story from yesterday - they took a dollar extra off of my credit card. They had better put it back on there. Otherwise I will have to brand them thieves.