Uncategorized

Potluck Entry

/ recipe, ronni, sick, Uncategorized

Happy 2008, everyone. I have a feeling this year is going to be amazing for me. 🙂 Let’s see why:

– I’m moving to Chicago
– I’m marrying adamselzer ♥
– Aidan’s 5, the best age EVER
– I have a new computer

It’ll be even better if this sinus pain or stuff would clear up.

Today was a so-so day. Healthwise, I was in the worst pain by far all day. Ibuprofen worked enough to make me very sleepy, but didn’t really knock out the pain. I called my doctor to see if he’d have mercy on me and prescibe me something to help me sleep, but I haven’t heard from him yet. Will try again tomorrow. Cause it gets infinitely worse at night, I don’t sleep, I’m miserable, and I am crap all day at work because of it.

I hope this thing clears away soon. The Psuedovent I am on is supposed to be thinning out this stuff, and making it come out of me, but I swear, things have gotten worse. My ears feel like they are perpetually on fire. And my eyes. People look at me and go “do you have pinkeye?” They’re red and all gunky and just, blah. I’m hoping that means things are draining and moving in there, but we’ll see.

Went to the dentist. That’s always fun. I have to get two fillings. Last time I went and they told me that, the cost was frightening and prohitibitive. This time, it didn’t seem so bad. I should probably get it handled before I move, because who knows how long I’ll have to wait for insurance after then? Other than that, my teeth look good, she said. Yay.

My dentist office is cool. I go to The Gentle Dentist. At my appointment today, I sat in a massage chair, and the hygenist and I chatted about Rachael Ray as the Food Network played above me. I got cherry toothpaste for my tooth polishing.

I think I should probably get my eyes checked too, and maybe get some new glasses. The problem is that my insurance says everything is “discounted.” Nothing is “covered,” actually. I’m a little bit wary, because there is no information about the size of the discount or anything.

newlifeinstpaul has been requesting that I post my recipe for macaroni and cheese, so here goes:

Ronni’s Macaroni & Cheese
elbow macaroni (or whatever shape you prefer)
shredded sharp cheddar cheese
shredded mild cheddar cheese
grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
shredded Mozzarella cheese
2% milk, or evaporated milk
butter
salt
vegetable oil

Boil the macaroni with butter, salt, and oil until desired firmness. Drain. Add the macaroni back to the pot, and turn on low heat. Add butter and milk. Gradually add cheeses, stirring as you do so. Once you have desired cheesiness, season to taste. Enjoy!

Very easy, very yummy.

Hmm. I had some other stuff, but now that the drugs are kicking in, the fuzziness is taking over and I am not quite sure of what that other stuff was. Well, one is that I am reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. So far, it’s delightful.

Lucy’s been awesome lately. She’s so chill these days, and I now LOVE having her in the room with me at night, or anytime I am in here. One of my favorite things to do is to lie on my tummy, and to have Lucy lie on my legs and purr. It’s so relaxing. Now, she’s taking a bath. :O

Brr! Cold! Temps in the teens and low 20s. But tomorrow, things are supposed to warm up again. Yay.

Yesterday was awful, it went SO SLOWLY! Today was a little bit better, except when the ibuprofen made me really sleepy. Tomorrow’s Friday, which means I’ll pop by the library on the way home, and possibly the grocery store to get some wine. Wine is really good at helping me sleep. 🙂 Then, I’m going to enjoy my weekend of nothingness. Well, sort of. I SHOULD take down the Christmas decorations, as Christmas officially ends January 6th, but I probably won’t. We’ll see how I feel. I really want to get better, so I may simply rest.

Speaking of rest, I should try to do that now. The meds are kicking in hardcore now, and I want to lie down. I have to pay a bill first, though.

Till next time!

Comments Off on Potluck Entry

Bulleted List

/ sick, Uncategorized
  • Still in pain. Just took my cocktail of four ibuprofen and one Psuedovent 400. Just waiting for those pain pills to kick in so I can lie down and relax.
  • Not much of an appetite lately.
  • Aidan turns FIVE tomorrow! I got him a toy robot (which is TOTALLY available in stores despite what the Web site says), a Spongebob Squarepants DVD, and a Spider-Man yo-yo. I also got myself a small desktop Christmas tree for 62 cents.
  • Enjoying the new computer. Still learning my way around Windows Vista, but it’s been good so far. It has some really nifty little features.
  • Aidan goes to my mom’s tomorrow and will stay for two weeks. He’s excited.
  • I’ve been rereading The Princess Diaries.
  • Still waiting for the ibuprofen to start working. It’s possible that it may not work at all tonight, though. That’s happened to me quite a few times. if that is the case, I will be popping a Darvocet to get some relief. I really hope the Psuedovent starts working soon. I know it takes a few days and I just started them Thursday evening. I am just ready to be well and not hurting anymore.
  • Did all the dishes today! Now I have to take out loads of trash and clean Little Lucy’s litter box. Man, that little cat can stink up the apartment when she does #2. I’ll probably do those Monday night or sometime Tuesday.
  • I have Tuesday off from work. Totally looking forward to lazing around all day. Maybe I’ll start to tackle Pride and Prejudice.
  • A bit sad that the holidays are coming to an end. Ordinary time can be so depressing.

That’s all for now.

Comments Off on Bulleted List

Up & Down

/ life, Uncategorized, wedding

Three months ’til Christmas. I’m hoping to spend it with a certain special someone, along with my family.

Maybe my birthday, too.

Last quarter of the year. Then it’ll be bye bye 2007, hello 2008. Another year of huge changes for me.

I want to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but they didn’t have it at the library.

They DID have The Everything Weddings on a Budget Book, so I grabbed it. It’s so little and cute! And it matches my organizer.

I totally want this one, though: Anti-Bride Wedding Planner.

It’s pink. And cheap on Amazon (but not after paying $84754935 for shipping), but more expensive at Borders.

The library does NOT have the new Leven Thumps book and I am very sad about that. You can’t just order the first two books in a series and not order the rest! That’s just WRONG. Hopefully they’ll get it in soon. I’m going to be checking the catalog every single day and reserving the book the second it shows up.

Interfaith ceremonies are challenging to put together; I didn’t realize Jewish ceremonies had so many components.

I’m broke as hell. No Taco Bell drive-thrus for me. Not that I eat Taco Bell anymore.

Payday is Thursday, but every cent is already accounted for.

My DVD player SUCKS. I’d been waiting forever to get High School Musical out of the library, and my stupid player won’t play it. It also won’t play Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, or Maid in Manhattan. Cheap piece of poop.

Fall is here, and my LJ has a new fall look. I finally said “bye bye” to the sponsored theme I had up; the one by the people who made those shoes.

I need a fall LJ icon. It’s hard to feel like it’s fall when it’s 93º F outside, so there have been no fall pictures.

Ohio weather is so annoying sometimes.

My hair is back to being all weird because it got wet. I had straightened it out all nicely. Oh well.

I’ve not been sleeping well. I fall asleep at about 12:30 or 1:00am, and I wake up at 3:30 or 4:00am, my mind racing, and I don’t fall back asleep until about 6:15am. Then my alarm goes off at 6:46am. *sigh*

I got an ARC of amanda_marrone‘s Uninvited in the mail and dude, Michael is HOT. There are no pictures of him or anything, but I can just tell. He’s HOT. I’ve read two chapters so far, and he is hot. Because he is a vampire. And teen vampires in books are hot.

The book is good so far, too. Amanda had let me read a chapter of it back when it first sold and I was hooked on it then. I’m excited to have the ARC. ARCs are cool.

I’ve eaten too much, as usual.

UGH, I got a telemarketer call at work today. ON MY LUNCH BREAK. Oh hell no, you do NOT bug me on my lunch break, okay? Ew. They started off with this “You’ve been entered to be in a sweepstakes for $25,000” bull crap, and I was thinking “Yeah, right, when are you going to try to sell me something?” Sure enough, at the end, they were like “You get all these free magazines and a diamond watch… but we would like you to pay for the TV Guide. It’s $3.95 a week.” Um, right. DON’T THINK SO. I don’t watch TV, so why do I need a TV Guide? And if I am really that curious about what’s coming on, I can check listings online. So I told her “I am not interested.” She hung up gracefully, but still. UGH. If I wanted to buy your shit, I’d call YOU.

The only time I let telemarketers sell me stuff was when it was the phone company calling to offer me something I was going to order anyway (caller ID back in 1999–which I no longer have because seriously, why pay $10 a month for that when I can just screen calls using my answering machine?–and DSL early this year. DSL is $19.99 a month, cable modem was $34.95, so yes, better deal for sure).

I totally got rained on today. It started sprinkling just a little bit when I got out of the library, then the skies opened on me as I was walking home. There was slight thunder and lightning, too. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t panicking. I used to get horrible attacks a few years ago.

Two-hour meeting tomorrow afternoon. Errata (ugh) in the morning, plus a marketing piece, and Word Sort vocabulary words. The professional development brochure was so much fun. I LOVE to “bleed” all over paper like that.

I feel weird. Not exactly sad, not exactly happy. I can tell it’s going to be another night of mind-racing, and little sleep. My body is all… wired. Tired but wired. I hate that sensation.

I want to speed through the next 400 or so days. I hate when I get that feeling because there is a lot to live for TODAY. Right?

I’m gaining weight again; my jeans are tight. I feel like throwing everything out in my apt and starting over with nothing but veggies and fish. But I won’t because well, that would be plain dumb! I need to stop eating dinner so late at night for one thing. I should be closing the kitchen down at 6:30pm every night. I also need to stop screwing around on the computer every evening for hours and hours. That’s just unhealthy, and I will be the size of a building if I keep this up.

But sometimes I don’t care. I get tired of trying to eat right all the time, and then STILL…never mind. Not getting into it. Not now.

I hate how the evenings go so quickly, but the workday crawls. How the hell is it already almost 10pm? 🙁

I hate how my memory is going to hell. I have a family history of Alzheimer’s, so this cannot be good. I took a memory test on Tickle and scored a 67%. 🙁

I hate that I haven’t written a word in any novel for two or three months now, and I just don’t have to motivation to even bother with it anymore.

My apartment’s a mess and I’m too overwhelmed to give a flying banana.

I guess I’m crashing, finally. I was on this “I just got engaged” high for 12 days, and now the reality of life is setting back in. Work, crap policies, play on computer, sleep, work, play on computer, sleep SEE AiDAN! ♥ work, play on computer, sleep. I guess I can’t be expected to stay on that sort of high for 400+ days, but man, this sucks. All the waiting. It sucks.

…….

I should go to go to bed. I’ll probably be awake until 1am, but at least I’ll be lying down.

Well, a lavender bath first. Then bed.

Night.

Comments Off on Up & Down

Just Stuff

/ aidan, life, ronni, Uncategorized, wedding

Well now. What a week it’s been! I had an awesome time in Chicago, what with getting engaged and all. I know, I’m a dork. I can’t stop grinning like a grinning thing when I think about it. And it comes over me at the most random times, like when I’m at Marc’s in the soap aisle.

Thanks to everyone who commented/emailed/wrote on our Facebook walls with their sincere congratulations! ♥ They really mean a lot to both of us.

Wedding planning is underway. Both moms are excited and on board. Now, we’re scoping for reasonably-priced Chicago-land venues. THAT is not an easy feat, let me tell you. We’ve also set an official date: November 01, 2008. We want to keep it very small, and it’ll be autumn-themed. I’ve also discovered The Knot. Holy cow. That site will cause me to lose a lot of sleep over the next 400 days. There is SO MUCH to see and read and look at and OMG.

Anyway, there is now wedding blog up where we both post: http://booknerdsinlove.blogspot.com
I’ll post most of the wedding craziness there. Feel free to bookmark and comment there.

In a few months, it’ll be December 20th. My birthday. I know it’s going to be on a Thursday because September’s days always line up with December’s days. And now that the days are lining up, I know it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. In an abstract sort of way, of course. I want to get Aidan a digital camera, and tons of little things. I love to watch him open presents. He’s soooo freaking cute. My mom’s already planning a boatload of stuff for him. I haven’t had to buy clothes for Aidan in about 18 months because my mom buys him so many outfits.

Speaking of Aidan, that little booger started preschool Monday! He’d started going to a small school in Pataskala in the summer, but Chris (zenosidal) got a job in Westerville, so he moved Aidan to a school that is closer (and frankly, nicer). He’s going to a Goddard school, and yesterday he told me all about it. He told me what his dad packs in his Spiderman lunchbox (the lunchbox that matches the backpack my mom got him), the kinds of activities he did, and about his new friend Dylan. He also told me that he’s a very good boy in school, which I believe. His progress sheet is so cute! It outlines all the things they did during the day. For example, yesterday, they played restaurant, they painted a picture with lollipops, and listened to a story about lollipops. They’re doing the five senses now, and Aidan told me he tasted something salty and something sweet. He wouldn’t try the lemon. I cannot wait to see what else he learns at this school! They’re teaching them so much, and he said he likes the way the teachers talk to him. They have nice voices, he says. Awwwww. I’m glad he’s enjoying school.

I’m very tired. Getting to bed before midnight has not been happening lately. I think I should get off the computer at about 9pm and take a bath in lavender, then read myself to sleep. That way, I can be asleep by 10:30pm at the latest. Because I am SO TIRED during the day and that’s not good. My body definitely prefers the night to the day.

Big Brother 8 has ended and Evel Dick has won. There was a lot of talk about the game being rigged so the Donatos would go to the final 2. Hmm. Strange things. My loyalties switched throughout the season, as they always do, but I would have loved to see Jameka take home the $500,000. Some episodes were crazy, I mean, what was UP with ED burning Jen? Then again, she was pretty dumb to keep trying to grab a lit cigarette from a man who didn’t like her. And the endurance part of the last HOH competition. Standing under FREEZING water for hours. Nice. I don’t think I’d have lasted ten minutes, but then again, I guess being fueled by the thought of $500,000 is a good motivator. I don’t know, this was one of the weirdest seasons. I missed a few seasons (I didn’t watch 1, 4, 5, or 6), but out of the ones I watched, this one had the weirdest set of people. My favorite all time player though, will always be Dr. Will. He was just sooo entertaining to watch. I’d love if they put BB2 on DVD.

When Big Brother 9 starts, I’ll either be living in Chicago, or getting ready to move there!

That’s all for now. ‘Til next time.

Comments Off on Just Stuff

An Update (Lots of Pictures/Survey)

/ adam, atlanta, family, life, pictures, recap, ronni, survey, Uncategorized, vacation, work

Hello, LJ people.

Yes, I’ve been away. Well, not exactly. I’ve been reading, just not posting. And it’s not because I haven’t had much to say. Okay, sometimes that was the case. But often, I was just too tired to sit here and write an entry.

But I am here now, so sit back and brace yourselves. It might be a long one! 🙂

Here are the things I’ve done since I last posted:

– Took my laptop to Best Buy again because the power adapter thingy was overheating and melting the cord. I mean, it was getting uncomfortably hot. It will scald you. Was told that there was liquid damage to the motherboard and they wouldn’t fix it unless I paid them more than $1200. I told them to leave the computer as is. I’ll just not touch the damn AC adapter part. It’s at Best Buy now, waiting for me to pick it up. I’ll go get it tomorrow. Seriously, who’d pay $1200 to repair a two-year old laptop when one can buy TWO NEW ones for that price?

One of these days, I’m going to get a Mac.

– I’ve subscribed to a bunch of feeds; The Bargainist, WiseBread, zen habits, The Happiness Project. I call the folder they’re in “Lifestyle” The Bargainist has lists and lists of deals, free samples, coupon codes. It’s neat. Wisebread is a money-management blog. The other two are just for me to become more at peace and happier. Good stuff, those. I have a ton of feeds on my Google Reader, actually. It’s such a convenient way to get loads of info in one place.

– Downloaded the new version of Flock. Got irritated because the pages with feeds and searches on them kept bringing up this little bar that asked me if I wanted to subscribe to them. I finally went into configurations and turned them off. Now I like Flock again. Except I can’t figure out how to turn off the media stream notification. Ugh.

– Had my one-year evaluation at work. It went really well. The copy editors are all going to start taking classes for Copy Editing certification. We wanted to start this month, but we’re waitlisted. We’ll see what happens. At any rate, work has been really good lately. The new lead copy editor is very cool. I won’t have page proofs coming in until October (sigh), so I’m doing a lot of pick up work for marketing and leftover stuff for everyone else. Plus errata. Always errata. Boo to errata. But yay to the style guide coming together!

– Became ADDICTED to enchiladas from El Vaquero. Seriously, they are SOOOOO good. I had some yesterday for lunch. Yummy.

– Started listening to the following bands a lot: Lacuna Coil, Grateful Dead, and The Crüxshadows. I also decided that I love the song Breakin’ Dishes by Rihanna. And If Tha Mood by Esthero. More songs, too.

– Went to Atlanta to meet adamselzer‘s parents and also for Dragon*Con!

Read about and see pix from Atlanta/Dragon*Con

Comments Off on An Update (Lots of Pictures/Survey)