to do

Banana Butt Jones (Picture)

/ pictures, to do, writing

Don’t even ask about the title. I’m going on about 5.5 hours of sleep here, and I’m barely sleepy now. Insomnia anyone?

I didn’t get to bed/sleep until about 730 or 8am. Then I slept until about noonish, and I took a 20 minute nap at about 9pm, which I think was a mistake. Not good. I’m going to go to bed anyway and try to read myself to sleep, but if I am not asleep by 230 or 3, I will give up and head back out into the living room.

I have a list of things I need to do this week.

1. Take down Christmas stuff. *sniffle* It’s getting to the point where I am getting tired of it, so it’s time to go to ordinary time for real. Blah. I’ll probably do that tomorrow/today.
2. Hunt down the mildewy smell and GET RID OF IT. Seriously, I cleaned out the fridge, Adam took out the trash twice, and I located the source of the bad potatoes. All of that is gone. I cleaned out the litter boxes. Nothing should be smelling bad. But something is still driving me crazy in here. Same scent as last night, and I think it’s the standing water that collects in the drain where the hot water heater is. Should the landlord have fixed this when we reported it a year ago? Why yes. Is it against city code for standing water to collect in a residence? Oh yes. Do you think the landlord gives a flying ice cream? If so, you’d be wrong. So, every week or so (more often now for some reason), Adam has to open the closet and pour water down this drain to get out the old stinky water that blows through the vents when the heater is on. He just did it Sunday, but he’s going to have to do it again sooner than later because the scent of standing water is nasty. This is only one of the things that have been reported and never fixed, and only one of the things that’s against code. TMG Management can suck it.
3. Clean the living room. Once I put away the Christmas stuff, I have to make it look like normal again.
4. Take a bath. I haven’t had a nice, long hot bath in weeks. It’s been showers and showers and showers. And the last bath before that sucked because the drain wasn’t properly secured so most of the water ran out, and by the time I realized it, there was no more hot water. It was a quick lukewarm bath and you know how much those suck. So I’m ready for a nice, hot steaming bath. And some tea. So that will be my reward for taking down the Christmas stuff. :)
5. Revamp my FarmVille farm. That’ll probably happen this weekend.

I think it’s time to scrap the story I have been working on. I am stuck and have been stuck on the same part for two years now. If you’re stuck after two years, it’s time to shelve and move on. The fact that I dread trying to write this book is a sign that it’s not the one I should be working on. I may use what I have for parts, or rework it, but for now, it’s done. There is no point in working on a book for free when I’m getting no joy out of it and when nothing of it is coming. The characters are still there, they just need to be used differently. HOW, I don’t know. But whatever.

This has been kind of a whiny post, so here is something yummy. My kitty, Helena, has gotten really cuddly lately. It started shortly after we switched the cats’ food from Meow Mix to Iams. Both cats are super soft now, and Little Lena’s been so much more affectionate. She hops up and sleeps on my feet just about every chance she gets. When she’s in our room at night, she doesn’t really jump on our feet anymore. She lies there and sleeps. Adam and I have taken to picking her up and putting her on my lap, because she rarely gets up on her own. Not sure if she’s waiting for an invite or what. She’s not exactly a lap cat yet, not unless I have a blanket on my lap, but once she’s on my lap, she’ll move down and lay her head on my ankle. Such a long cry from the little wild thing she was when we first brought her home!

Here’s a picture of me from New Year’s Eve:

Dressed Up for New Year's!

My mom got me the dress for Christmas. I need to get in shape and I don’t really care.

Blah ditty blah blah blah.

I feel like Eeyore.

That’s all for now.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Starlight, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight (Picture)

/ aidan, conversations with aidan, disney world, pictures, shopping, to do, work

!!! Disney in just a couple days !!!

And I’ve been SO busy, I haven’t even had time to make lists of the stuff I need to do before and for the trip. I’m hoping that Saturday, after my hair appointment, I can come home and square things away. I’m supposed to work late tomorrow night, so that’s out. Eeek. However, my paycheck next week will be very nice! I’m purposely waiting until near the end of the trip to do the bulk of my souvenir shopping. (Don’t worry, Rosa, I haven’t forgotten about your Alice pin!)

I think I’ll get it together, though. I am almost done with all the shopping I need to do. I’d like to get another memory card for at least one of the cameras (although we’ll have at least three cameras total!), I got some cute new shirts and a pair of shorts (for $5!), a new necklace, and some earrings. I am so happy we have an Aeropostale downtown now. SO HAPPY! Hmm… I want to get more sunscreen, although I do have a can of nice spray on stuff. It’s a few years old, though, so I don’t know if it’ll still be any good. I do NOT want to get burned!

Here are some things I need to do:

– clear off memory cards
– recharge camera batteries
– buy sunscreen
– load and recharge iPod
– sync iPhone (although I tend to do this every night anyway)
– choose a bag to carry around the park
– gather up Disney stuff (confirmations, Disney dollars, Magical Express tags, ears, etc.)
– PACK!!!!

Yes, EARS! Melissa and Eli bought us the bride and groom ears! I’m so happy about that! Adam looks SO cute in his. I’m sure I’ll look cute, too.

I’m so very excited to be going to Disney World. I have the Wishes song on my iPhone as my default ringtone.

Tonight, I talked to little Aidan on the phone. He and his dad were on speaker, and Aidan was getting tired and a little bit grouchy. Anyway, he was trying to say he wasn’t sleepy.

Aidan: I’m not sleepy. I’m like an owl.
Ronni: Aw, he’s a night owl.
Chris: Yes, just like his mommy. Aidan, are you nocturnal?
Aidan: Yes, that means I wake up in the night.
Chris: Do you hibernate?
Aidan: No, I’m not a bear!

He’s so freakin’ smart. I miss him so much. Earlier this week, I mailed him a package full of cool stuff, and he got it today. He said he likes everything in there. :) Among the things I put in the package:

– butterfly bath bomb from Lush
– 2 shirts from Old Navy (he said he LOVES them and can’t wait to wear them!)
– sour gummy worms
– fruit snacks
– blue self-stick notes in the shape of an A

Schawk! is still going well. Fourth quarter officially starts this weekend, though, so they’re already asking people to do overtime. I can’t this week–I’ll be preparing for Disney World. But soon enough, I’ll be working 10 hour days and Saturdays too, probably. I’ll be loving my paychecks as a result of all that work. It’s a decent place to work. But I am glad tomorrow is Friday. This week was a bit tiring.

Hmm, what else? I want to get it all out while I’m here, because I don’t know if I’ll have time to blog again before I go!!!

OH, I know. Check this out:

Stuffed Animals

See the big giraffe? Yeah, I TOTALLY want it. I went up to it in the store today and hugged it. So cute.

Oh, I know. Yesterday, I went and saw Romney at her job. She works a BLOCK from me. Takes me like, 2 minutes to walk there. She’s SO CUTE. :) I adore her.

OK, I need to go because I’m typing like crap and losing my train of thought, AND I am getting sleepy. Plus Crookshanks just plopped his big butt on my lap. Please forgive any typos. I’ll try to blog tomorrow or Saturday, if I have some time. But for now… good night!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Finally, An Update! (Pictures, Long)

/ friends, horoscope, life, living in chicago, pictures, ronni, shopping, to do

I’ve been chastised about not updating, so here I am. The thing is that I simply didn’t (and still don’t, really) have much to talk about. Sometimes it’s just like that.

I’ve been highly enjoying the Olympics. In fact, now my body clock is WAY messed up because I stay up late watching them and then just don’t make it to bed after. I’m back to being a total night owl. Sleeping all day and staying up all night. I only get to bed at about 3:30 or 4:00 am because I force myself. I’d easily stay up all night if I could.

However, I am anticipating starting my assignment next week (actually, as this week winds down, I’m kind of losing hope of starting until after Labor Day which wouldn’t be good for my wallet AT ALL), and I NEED to get my body back to “normal” hours. Frankly, I believe MY normal hours are like this, because it’s too easy for me to slip back into this pattern of staying up all night and sleeping all day. I wonder if I moved to the other side of the world, would I be on a “normal” schedule, then?

So, the biggest news?

I got new glasses!

Wanna see? Of course you do.

New Glasses!

Cool, huh? I decided to go for a more bold look than I’ve had the past few years. I like them. Adam LOVES them. ♥

The cats have been great. Helena is an EATING MACHINE, and they’ve gone through an entire HUGE bag of Kit & Kaboodle. That used to last Crookshanks quite a while (and a bag of food that big would last Little Lucy months!), but now with Helena here (who is incidentally, wailing for more food at this moment!), I get the feeling our cat food expenses will go up drastically. I hope she doesn’t get fat! The only annoying thing about her is that she is very loud, and unfortunately, she’s usually loud around 6am. She does that terror-running and she wails, especially if the food bowl is empty. She’s very sweet, though, and she often curls up beside me on the couch when I’m on the laptop or reading or watching TV. She used to try calling me to bed, but I think she’s given up on that. SHE is a night owl too, but she’s also a very early riser, and she’s a cat, so she gets to sleep and take naps all day. Lucky girl. I do like mirroring her life, but I need to make money, dang it.

This is one of the pictures from our wedding weekend. Kelly took this one. I haven’t been able to take one this great of Helena yet:

Beautiful Helena

Here are some more of the professional wedding pictures taken by Kelly. [LINK]

My friend Libby said she likes when I detail my grocery purchases on my blog, so this is what I got today yesterday:

1 carton of Edy’s chocolate ice cream · $2.50
1 bag of Lay’s potato chips · $2.50
1 bag of Malt-O-Meal Tootie Fruities (generic Froot Loops) · $1.89

I also went grocery shopping Monday, but I don’t know the prices. I know I did get two containers of lunch meat (one ham, one turkey), some Lay’s potato chips (yes, I had to get more b/c I’m clumsy and well, let’s just not talk about it), Tropicana Twister, Dean’s french onion dip (I hate onions, but I like the flavor, and I love certain French onion dips), and that’s all I can think of for now. At Target, Adam got granola bars. I’m not used to having people eat the foods I eat. I’m used to buying granola bars and having them stay until I’m ready for them; but Adam likes granola bars and he likes Trix, too. Eek. Anyway, I made him buy granola bars at Target, and we found these dark chocolate cherry ones. MMMMM! I’m pretty sure they’ll be discontinued soon, as this happens often when I find something I love to eat. *sigh* I haven’t been able to find Granola Dipps in the grocery for weeks now. :(

I went to the library last week and I’ve already read all but two of the books I’d taken out. Eep. The guy behind the counter recognized me. He said that I come in every week and check out sixty books. I have to go again soon, actually. I got to read Lisa McMann’s WAKE (awesome book) and Sophie Kinsella’s REMEMBER ME (which I also enjoyed). I’ve also been poring over Disney World travel guides. Not much longer ’til we’re there! :)

This is my daily forecast for August 20 and 21:

You feel very centered, calm and in perfect harmony with yourself Your inner communication is flowing quite smoothly, regardless of what’s going on around you. Your life has reached a point of balance and equilibrium and you’re feeling the satisfying effects of getting all those disparate elements to work together. Your creativity is also quite high, which you should certainly take advantage of. If you already have a creative project underway, get to it! If not, give yourself some time to dream and let images and feelings come to you; then go get started bringing them to tangible form. If you tell others of your ideas, you’re likely to notice you receive lots of positive feedback. If you’re an artist by career, you might even have some pieces accepted by a gallery or a film invited for a festival screening. Now is a good time to blend your artistic abilities with your confidence and people skills; get out there and tout your work, because others are in prime mood to appreciate whatever you show them.

It really does mirror how I feel. I’m head over heels butt crazy about Adam. Did I mention that he sometimes brings me breakfast in bed? And he makes good meals, and he is so nice to cuddle. ♥ I guess I’ll stop before I get all sappy and make you all go EW GROSS!

Instead, I’ll make my to-do list.

TO DO
thank you cards
upload and order wedding pictures
send wedding pictures to my mom
mail Ivy’s & Rosa’s stuff

Well, the list seemed LOT bigger in my head. I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff. Speaking of Ivy, she sent me cookies again. Adam ordered me to keep him away from them or else he’ll eat them all. THEY ARE YUMMY! I love Ivy’s cookies. Everyone I know likes them, too. I also just finished editing her latest project, and I stayed up until 4am because the book got SO GOOD that I had to see what happened. I’m having a hard time breaking my reading up into healthy chunks. I keep on devouring them in one gulp. Eeep.

I guess I had a lot more to say than I thought. Huh. Funny how that works. Anyway, I am going to try to get to bed a LITTLE bit earlier than normal. Let’s see if I can pull it off.

‘Til next time!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Countdown III (Pictures)

/ birthday, christmas, life, meme, pictures, to do, work

Six more days!!
One more till my birthday! I’ll be &@#&@&#@. Ooops, must have missed something in the translation there….

Today, I got a a gift certificate to Amazon.com from Adam’s dad (and my future father-in-law). THAT makes me so happy. Books! This evening, I got a package from Rosa (meimeigui) and Richard, with strict instructions not to open anything early. So I have a birthday present next to me, and a Christmas present for me, and a Christmas present for Aidan, under the tree.

Janet spoiled me yesterday at work. First, there was this at my desk:

Cake!

Then, a bunch of us went to La Chatelaine for lunch, and Janet treated me. I had the lunch combo: ham sandwich, tomato basil soup, and Caesar salad. Yummmmo. I really like that place and want to go again SOON. The prices are not unreasonable, either.

Karen gave me a card and told me not to open it until tomorrow. I sat it by my computer so I can remember. If I am up at midnight tonight, I’m going to open the present from Rosa and Richard. 🙂

This morning, I came into work and found a poinsettia, two cards, candy, and two books on my desk. What a nice surprise, yes? This time of year is so awesome. One of the cards had a lottery ticket in it. I didn’t win.

E Mae treated the copy editors to lunch at Spagio. It was good. I had leftovers. It’s really rich food, so I can eat like, 1/3 of a serving at a time before my mouth says NO MORE FOR NOW, you!

I have to wrap all of Adam’s gifts tonight, as he’ll be here tomorrow. (!!!♥!!!) I don’t take him for a snooper, but I just want to have it done. Some of the boxes are soooo cute that I’m not bothering to wrap them. But the animal print ones I picked up at Marc’s—DEFINITELY getting wrapped. LoL.

Aidan’s disappointed because there are things under the tree for him and he can’t open them yet.

He’s still cute though:

My Favorite Present Ever
My Favorite Present, Always!

I took a Spending Style test on Tickle today. Here is the result:

Ronni, you’re a Bargain Hunter

In your life, you’re willing to go the extra mile in order to find a good deal. Whenever possible, you hold out until you can find the least expensive version of something you need. Your patience and persistence generally leads you to significant savings, which you likely take great pride in. While some may mistakenly think you are cheap and puzzle over why you prefer thrift stores to overpriced boutiques, you’re content to let them squander their cash while you chase down a great bargain.

When it comes to your financial state, you tend to feel like you’re about where you think you should be.

Except for that last statement, it’s pretty much right on.

To Do, Revisited:

– renew driver’s license (12/20)
– renew license plate tags (12/20)
– clean my room (that includes finally unpacking my clothes from my Atlanta and NYC trips, changing the sheets, and general tidying up)
– finish Christmas shopping
– Christmas cards
– insulate windows with some of that plastic stuff you use with a hairdryer
– hair
– clean little Lucy’s litter box (thorough cleaning, not just litter exchange)
– burn a Christmas CD
– wrap gifts
– get groceries

My computer is SO SLOW. It’s driving me nuts. Takes freakin’ Facebook forever to load, and to switch between programs… the thing acts like it’s straining to do that. I have 1.5 gigs of memory and it’s a 2.something gig processor. Web sites take ages to come up. The thing takes at least ten minutes to fully boot up. It amazes me how much Windows deteriorates after a few years, or months even. I also hate how certain programs steal focus. I’ll start something in the background and then go to something else while I am waiting for it to open. Instead of the other program blinking in the taskbar to let me know its ready, all of a sudden, whatever I’m working on disappears and a new IE window or something is in the way. Drives me bananas. But the new Flickr Uploader is awesome. I can do EVERYTHING I need to do to the photos right in the uploader, so no need to wait for the site to load to finish editing (tags, sets, etc.). Good times.

At about 11am tomorrow, I will be leaving ZB until next Friday. Can’t wait. No more Core TEs to bother with for days and days and days. *glares at vendor*

OK, gonna go finish with the gifts and trying to make Aidan giggle. Later! 🙂

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Countdown Part II

/ christmas, hair, life, to do

The original plan wasn’t to finish all my holiday prep today. I had planned on doing it all tomorrow. However, I got bit by the bug at about 10:23 a.m. and so I headed out about 11:24. First stop was the post office. I’d figured I’d just use the APC, as that’s available afterhours. But the post office was actually open, which I’m sure was nice for the people who wanted to deal with an actual clerk when mailing packages and such. I got all my grocery shopping done, and I finished all my holiday shopping. I really wanted to get Aidan an argyle sweater. I just think he’d look so cute in one. Unfortunately, I found a couple at Old Navy that were way too big for him, and one at GapKids (this one) which was WAY too expensive. No almost-five year old needs a $35 sweater. I don’t even spend that much on MY sweaters.

Here’s my to-do list, revisited:

– renew driver’s license (12/20)
– renew license plate tags (12/20)
– clean my room (that includes finally unpacking my clothes from my Atlanta and NYC trips, changing the sheets, and general tidying up)
– finish Christmas shopping (Aidan’s all that’s left—I want to get him an argyle sweater!)
– Christmas cards
– insulate windows with some of that plastic stuff you use with a hairdryer
– hair
– clean little Lucy’s litter box (thorough cleaning, not just litter exchange)
– burn a Christmas CD
– wrap gifts
– get groceries

I should probably do a load of laundry, too.

I really want to get my hair done. At a salon. I just can’t justify spending $70 for a service I can do myself, though. Even though doing my hair annoys me because it takes so long and I rarely get the results I want, spending $8 for an at-home kit is a lot more economical than the whole $70 at the salon thing. I was going to do my hair today, and I still might later on. Or I might wait ’til tomorrow. Or Tuesday.

Oh, and here’s the question. Adam says NO. I want to get other opinions. There are nine days until Christmas. Is it too early to wrap presents? *eyeballs pile of stuff on floor behind me*

I love this season. Nine days.
Four ’til my birthday. And ’til Adam gets here. ♥

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