Domestic Geek

Hey everybody! Hope you're having a wonderful 2008 so far and getting back into the swing of things post holidays.

I've been in a really crappy mood, so I haven't been going anywhere near this blog. I've been sick since two days before Christmas (Marcus was also sick a few days before I and he's still not totally well). It's finally starting to clear out, but the cough is lingering. I coughed so bad the other day I popped a blood vessel in my eye ball and it's all red and yucky looking. Fortunately, it doesn't hurt and isn't affecting my vision, it just looks nasty as all get out.

Our POS landlords gave us a wonderful holiday gift - they raised our lot rent by $45. As if we weren't being shafted enough to live in this dump, we now get the privilege of paying even more. Marcus and I have vowed that by this time next year, we will not be living here. I'm sick of throwing money down the drain to these people every freaking month. I also want a dog and I promised myself that I would wait until we're out of here before I got another one. Having no dog to give gifts to on Christmas morning sucked in a major way.

Work has slowed down in the new year (as expected). I'll be lucky to get my 40 hours a week the next few weeks. There is a chance I can get some extra hours working in the bindery, if I can ever get well. The bindery is a dirty, hot place and I'm not subjecting my ill body to those conditions, y'know? I was contemplating going back to pizza, but I'd have to get a beater car because I swore I would never deliver pizzas in my Baja. I really don't want to deal with having another car, though. I'm going to have to start doing some design work on the side, probably, even though I hate working with clients. I will get my embroidery business going this year, thanks to the gift of a Brother PE-700 embroidery machine that the awesome Marcus got me for Christmas. A coworker is letting me have her old PE-Design software and card writer to help me get going. I'm so excited!

I got some really neat gifts this year. In addition to the embroidery machine, I got a USB turntable to convert my old vinyl albums to digital, the 2nd season of The Muppet Show, A Muppet Christmas Carol, a couple of iTunes gift cards, the CD and DVD of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker's Greatest hits CD, A Night at the Museum DVD, some cool cannisters for my counter and a Harry Potter Hallmark ornament. Our workplace gave us all fleece jackets and an LED flashlight, too.

I've only set one resolution for this new year: get healthy. I was not pleased with what I saw in holiday photos this year, plus my weight went back up over the 300lb mark last week. The 4th was the 11 year anniversary of my mother's death and I was thinking about how she was only 51 (I think) when she passed. I'm only 10 years from that age and I don't want to die that early. I'm also tired of being tired all the time. I'm fed up with not sleeping well.

I need to take a look at my 101 in 1001 list and see what goals I had set and get busy.

Stupid Google mail started blocking emails originating from my IP, so I had no idea I was getting comments here for over a month. I just had to clear out a ton of spam comments that made their way into my posts. Grrrrrr! If I blew off a comment you made, I'm sorry. I'm trying to figure out where I have to change the email address for comment notifications to be directed elsewhere.

So there, that's what I've been up to while I've been away from the blog. I'm sure as soon as I get better, posting will become more frequent here. I've also made the decision that I will no longer do any paid blogging here (not that there is anything available to do anymore, anyway). I'm hoping to have this blog moved to its own domain by the end of the month with a new design and everything. We'll see how that goes.

Hey all! Hope you all had a nice holiday. I'm celebrating by finally getting a new theme up so you all don't have to look at Pink October for a whole year. There is still some wonkiness that I need to iron out tomorrow, but all in all I'm happy with it.

Just to sum up what's been going on in the last month:

• I've been super busy at work.
• I'm sick.
• Holiday season stress.

There. That's about it.

I'll post later in the week about my holiday haul, but I just wanted to check in.

A Big Yahoo: All trials at Adams County courthouse are canceled tomorrow, so jury duty summons is null and void and I'm excused. I still have to drive to work in snow (yuck), but at least I don't have to make my way up North to that stupid courthouse out in the middle of nowhere.

Marcus just alerted me to an article on ArsTechnica that CompUSA will sell or close its remaining stores after the holiday season. I have mixed feelings about it as I've always had a love/hate relationship with that particular retailer.

It is part of Marcus' and my ritual, though, to browse through the aisles of Comp at least every other weekend. It's just a quick jaunt up the street if we need an ink cartridge or something. The next closest computer retailer is Microcenter, but it's just a bit too far of a drive to just window shop. It's looking like the majority of our computer shopping in the future will take place online if it can't be purchased at The Apple Store.

They're saying that consumers will be able to find "attractive holiday bargains" as they begin to sell off the assets. I guess we'll see.

Saturday is our company's annual holiday party. Neither Marcus nor I are attending. The biggest factor is that Marcus is not a social guy and I have no desire to go by myself. Also, the people that are attending are mostly those that I wouldn't care to socialize with outside of work. You know the type...their only form of entertainment is getting stinking, stupid drunk, especially with an open bar provided. It's being hosted at a venue way down in the South metro area, way too far for me to drive, especially if I had anything to drink. One of the people organizing it, while trying to finalize the list of who was and was not attending, mentioned that this party costs the company $100 per employee that attends (since most bring a spouse or guest). Geez, I'd much rather just have the $100 as a bonus or something.

We will be down in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park instead on Saturday, though. It's tree cutting time.

I didn't get to go to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert tonight. Boooooo! Maybe next year.

Van Halen tickets for the Denver show go on sale on Saturday. Too bad I can't find anybody to go to that show with me, either.

OK, to offset all the hating this morning, I'm going to send out a little lovin'.

We had absolutely no food in the house two nights ago and I was too tired to go to the store or cook. They opened a Noodles & Co. practically across the street from us and Marcus half-heartedly promised me we'd try it out sometime. Well, I decided Tuesday night we were going to do it.

I printed out the online menu so that Marcus could peruse it from the comfort of home. When he walked in the door, as I handed him the menu, I told him to keep his shoes on, we were going out to eat...my treat.

I'm so glad we finally tried it. The food was yummy! I had Beef Stroganoff and Marcus had Mac & Cheese. The clincher was that the iced tea was very good. That's a deal breaker for us with some eating establishments. Since we stopped drinking soda, a place has to have decent iced tea. It is a little expensive, so not someplace we'll eat at a lot, but definitely some place to keep on the short list.

There's a little club of theirs that you can join online. They sent me a buy one bowl, get one free coupon in my email yesterday. You also get a free bowl for your birthday, too. Very cool.