Domestic Geek

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.

I hate how items or colors go in and out of style. I hate how someone somewhere decided that this year's color scheme for Christmas is earth tones. I want bright green and red things, dang it, not avocado greens or pale reds. The papers at the scrapbooking stores are absolutely hideous. Yucky.

I also hate that last year I saw cool covered vegetable/dip trays or Christmas patterned storage containers everywhere and this year I have the money to purchase some and can't find them anywhere. Even just this summer I saw a neat vegetable tray at King Soopers that had liquid inside that you froze so that the vegetables would stay cool and even that is no longer available.

I hate having to go to work. Granted, having a job is better than having no job, but I really hate working for other people during set times. I want to be able to have a flexible work schedule. I wish I could figure out what my passion is.

I'm really starting to hate this one girl at work. I'm trying my darnedest to ignore her and concentrate on my job, but it is soooo difficult. Universe, give me strength.

I hate having really bad dreams that leave you terrified and afraid to wake up. I had one of those last night. I was trapped in a house with a malicious spirit of some sort. *shiver*

I hate how I avoid unpleasant things I must deal with or how I procrastinate. It's definitely my worst trait. I haven't yet figured out how to change yet, though.

That's enough hating for now. I just had to get that out.