I'm being a total sucker for nostalgia today. MTV is running a special about Pedro Zamora. I didn't watch it last night but I taped it this morning and then when I got home it was on again and I watched about ten minutes of it before I stopped myself. I want to watch it all at once. But, man, just those few minutes made me tear up. I'm going to be a mess when I watch the whole thing. I still remember watching the marathon of that season while babysitting one weekend and right after the last episode they reported that he had died and I just lost it. I know I'm going to hate myself for watching this but I can't help it.

And tonight is the finale of ER. I haven't watched for a few years but it used to be one of my favorites and I'm still in love with John Carter. The previews make it seem like he'll be the center of everything tonight so there's no way I'm missing it. But I'm sure it will make me cry too. Ack.

Went back to work today. Kind of wished I hadn't but I'm at least a little caught up now. And now I just have to get through tomorrow and it's the weekend again. Can't beat that.

Now if winter would just officially go away!

I've only been outside once since Friday night. I've gotten a lot accomplished so I wasn't completely lazy. But there just wasn't a reason to go out in the cold so I didn't. And now we apparently have a storm coming so I may be staying home on Tuesday too. Tomorrow I need to think of something to bring home to work on. I don't miss making teaching materials all the time but it would be a lot easier to "work from home" if I had something to cut or color.

Pizza Hut doesn't have pork sausage any more. I hate Italian sausage and I'm not a big fan of pepperoni either so I guess I won't be ordering Pizza Hut again. Good for diet purposes but, still. How rude.

My stepmother isn't doing much better and her second doctor's diagnosis is pretty much the same as the first one. She's going to have to quit working and avoid all germs and be on oxygen all the time. It's just so sad but at the same time it makes me angry because she's known how sick she was for over a year and she was still smoking. I just don't understand. At least this is giving Jaimie enough incentive to finally stop smoking herself. But it shouldn't have to come to that.

Nothing happened Friday night. The vodka from the week before was definitely a factor and the guy just wasn't as attractive to me this week. Still cute but kind of a jerk and not worth the effort. And apparently he's been annoying all of the women he's working with and they're talking about sexual harassment. Obviously not someone I want to get involved with so I just won't.

I made several new recipes today and was pretty happy with all of them. And now I don't have to cook all week except to bake potatoes. Although if I'm home on Tuesday I might bake something else. I don't want to get my hopes up though. Right now they're saying we might get five inches of snow and/or some ice but I don't believe anything they say. They didn't say anything about snow last night and I woke up to a covered parking lot. Whatever.

I have to get a TB test tomorrow. Boo. I should have had it in December but we all forgot they were due. Oops?

New Year's was nice. We ran out of Margarita mix early so by midnight I wasn't even slightly tipsy so Hope and I came back to my place so I could sleep in my own bed. We all went to see Marley and Me (so good but take tissues, lots of tissues)on New Year's Day and then I made lasagna and minicheesecakes for everyone and we watched the season 3 finale of TBL. The rest of the weekend was spent setting up my new computer and then reading as much of the H/D holiday fics as I could.

I kept trying to think of some kind of New Year's post but I didn't come up with anything. 2008 was actually okay for me personally but it sucked for my family so I'm glad it's over. However 2009 is going to involve a job search and hopefully a move so I'm scared to death. Therefore right now I'm just going to concentrate on getting back in the groove after two weeks off and wait a few more days to start freaking out about where my life is going.

Back to reading!

I have to join in on saying, WTH?" to the weather. It's messing with my travel plans. And it's not like we can ever trust the forecasts. So right now our plan is still to leave as soon as we can on Wednesday morning, hoping that the snow moves out of the area faster than they're predicting and that it doesn't snow more than they're expecting. I'm planning to drive up to the preschool in the morning, mainly to drop stuff off so it can be out of my car when I go to pick up my new one. But I'll probably come right back so I don't get caught in freezing rain. And then I'll pick up my car! :)

They're really not doing anything productive at the preschool this week anyway. I only stayed half a day today because I was basically just sitting around while they made ornaments and/or painted their classrooms. I'm sure tomorrow will be even less productive. Plus I just really don't want to work anymore. I want to be on vacation!

My car is all cleaned out and ready to be dropped off. I'm a little sad but I keep reminding myself of the mysterious squeak it's been making and the weird brake thing that needs to be fixed for $600 and I come back to being happy about the new car. I'm just a little attached but I'll get over it. I guess I need to be thinking about a name for the new one.

I really kind of love eggnog. Even light eggnog. And I don't know how anyone drinks it slowly. Mine never lasts very long.

So glad today is over. Way too much socializing for me. First we had a staff meeting for just our group this morning which was really just a time for my boss and several other people to hand out gifts for everyone. I almost felt bad again but reminded myself again that I bring a treat to every staff meeting. So, no guilt! Plus Lisa's gifts to me were a cookie recipe book and a calendar with cupcake recipes and her card informed me that she expected to see "outcomes" from her gift very soon. Hee.

Then we all headed over to our executive director's house for our agency holiday brunch. He's also a lawyer so you can imagine how big and beautiful his house was. I ate a ton of shrimp, laughed at the toasts to the three people that are leaving and endured small talk until Lisa dragged me out early so she could go home and get ready to drive to KC to pick up her son. Thank goodness we rode together so I could escape early. It really was a nice gathering. I just get worn out quickly by those types of things.

After I dropped Lisa back at the office, I went on a mission to find a hat for my dad and finally found it five stores later at Sears. It's not the exact hat that he got for Grandpa but I think it's close enough and quite honestly it will just have to be good enough. The mall was crazy! I did take time to find a cute sweater at JCPenney so I could use my $10 coupon. Yay for $5 sweaters! Then I went to Walmart to buy all of the ingredients for my day of treatmaking for my teachers on Sunday and somehow I also left the store with two new pairs of shoes. Oops? But then I came home to a fun gift from kare. She knows me so well. :D Thank you!

Finally I went to our finance person's open house. She got married on Wednesday in a private ceremony but had a little reception tonight. Another 45 minutes of eating and making small talk and then I finally got to come home and put on my pajamas. Winter makes me anti-social.

So now I'm done with my Christmas shopping except for my best college friend but I won't see her until the 29th at the earliest so I can take advantage of after Christmas sales to get something for her. Now I just have to get all of my baking and fudge-making done and I can relax and enjoy my vacation. Two days of work next week and then I'm free for the rest of the year. Yay!

Happy Weekend. :)

I'm addicted to Word Challenge on Facebook. I was doing so well and now I've been stuck at the same score since Saturday. I can seriously do this for hours.

My boss is annoying me. And I was also not happy about slippery roads this morning. This is what I've been dreading since I switched preschools. I really enjoyed my long weekend but now I'm already ready for my Christmas vacation.

It really was a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Jaimie was sick and still isn't better so she didn't have a wonderful time but Mom and I enjoyed our time out there in Kansas and then still had two days of relaxing at home. I spent Saturday in my pajamas and it was great.

I miss seeing Lance on my tv tonight but I don't miss voting for hours. But I also have nothing to watch on Monday nights now. Maybe that will become my Netflix night for a while.

Back to my game!

I was not surprised last night. Still so very proud of Lance. I freely admit that I didn't want him to do DWTS because it broke my heart when Joey didn't win and I knew it would be even worse with Lance. I HATE when people are mean to Lance. But as much as I hate that he lost, I'm glad he did it and I hope he really understands now that he's a GOOD dancer. I love him so much. And most of all I'm happy that I have my Monday nights back. No more voting for hours! :)

I got my permanent crown on Monday and I hate it. I swear it's twice as big as the rest of my teeth and I can't really bring my back teeth together on the other side anymore so chewing is weird. It's only been two days so I'm sure I just have to get used to it. I just think I liked it better with the broken tooth. :P

I just finished baking Jaimie's birthday cake and we're leaving for KC this afternoon. We're having Jaimie's traditional fried chicken birthday meal for lunch tomorrow and then the kids are going to their dad's house. We're going to see Four Christmases and then we're going to drink fruity sangria for the rest of the day. Shopping on Friday and then Mom and I will be back in town for the rest of the weekend. I'm planning a whole lot of nothing for Saturday and Sunday. Work is going to be crazy for the next three weeks so I need to relax now in preparation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Man, this weekend was full of family. Hope and Alicia really enjoyed the concert the other night and I enjoyed it more than I expected. The girls helped me make all of my assignments for yesterday's dinner at Mom's and they also earned some money dusting and organizing my kitchen cabinets. They should visit more often. After we ate, we spent the rest of the day watching movies and raking the leaves in Mom's yard. We watched Akeelah and the Bee, This Christmas and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants2. All really good movies but I cried a LOT yesterday.

Today they had a Thanksgiving dinner at Grandpa's nursing home so I went as the sole rep for my branch of the family. My aunt didn't even tell my dad because she would rather he come for Christmas and she knows he wouldn't do both. That's really sad. I'll probably be the only one to go then too because Tanner will probably have a basketball game and Jaimie won't come. But I'll probably go anyway so I can be paid up on visits for a few months. That's pretty sad too but what are you gonna do?

Two days of work this week and then a five-day weekend. I can't wait. It turns out that the SLP that's leaving is going back to school. I still don't know why she can't wait until the end of the grant but I don't really care because I'm glad I won't have to work with her. In other work news, the data team came to present last year's data to us on Friday too. We rock! There are only two categories where we're not miles ahead of our comparison preschools and there are some pretty logical theories about why they did better in those and even those make us look good. Now if we could just get people at the state level to pay attention, we might actually make some positive advances in early childhood education. Thank goodness we have a new governor that might let that happen.

Anyway, good weekend but not much relaxing so I'm ready to get the next two days over with and have time to just hang out.

I'm having a crisis of popularity lately in that I'm pretty sure everyone hates me. Being "accidentally" excluded from lunch with the group I usually go with on Fridays didn't help. I'm also having a hard time being motivated to do my job even though I like my new preschool better. But apparently I'm not alone in the "I'm mostly thinking about what I'm going to do next," mentality so that makes me feel a little better.

Also, men make me crazy. I wish I would just remember that all the time. And I'm completely over the whole eharmony idea but I feel bad about the guys I'm leaving hanging. But I just have no interest. Hrm.

In better news, Subway sugar cookies are back. The girl behind the counter tried to tell me they've always had them and I didn't argue with her but I know I haven't seen them for a very long time. And you know I look. The part of me that has missed them was very happy but the part of me that's trying to make better food choices was annoyed. Guess who won?

I'm going out tonight but I'm not very excited about it. I usually have more fun when I drag my feet about going so let's hope for that. I just have no idea what I'm going to wear. Ugh.

I am excited about all of the tv premieres next week but I'm already stressed trying to figure out how I'm going to watch DWTS and TBL at the same time and trying to remember all of the email addresses I "borrowed" when Joey was on so I could vote and vote and vote. Plus karaoke is on Tuesday nights and I can only tape one show. Dilemma! Also, I made it through the premiere of TBL without crying but I'll be surprised if that lasts through the next one. But I had taped it and I exercised while I watched the first half and it actually did inspire me. 20 minutes on my much-hated bike seemed like nothing when I was watching people throwing up after walking on a treadmill.

Anyway, it's the weekend and I refuse to be unhappy or annoyed or have hurt feelings for the rest of it. Happy Friday!

So I had my dentist appointment this afternoon. The bad news is that I have to get a crown on my broken tooth. The good news is I don't have to do it right away so I can build up my HSA a little more before I spend so much. Also, I don't have any cavities. Considering I haven't been to a dentist in at least seven years, I guess I was pretty lucky.

I had to do a presentation at our staff meeting this morning on something from Nashville last week and I guess I did okay. It was pretty easy because I was basically showing everyone how to navigate a website that we can use for new teacher training so I got to sit at the table and look at my computer instead of looking at everyone listening to me. If public speaking were always like that, I'd have no problem! :D

Jaimie and the kids will be here tomorrow afternoon so we can celebrate Tanner's birthday and go to Grandpa's thing on Sunday. So not looking forward to that. Jaimie wanted to go early and leave early but I'm not leaving before the food. That's the only part that's worth it! :P If I keep my mouth full there's less chance of me smarting off at Cindy. Although Jaimie is more likely to do that than me. Maybe then they'd stop inviting us! I just know that my dad had better show up too. He's the reason we have to deal with these people so he should at least suffer through it with us.

I'm all about the movies tonight. So far I've watched Meet the Robinsons, Enchanted, the end of The Wedding Date and now I'm watching LOTR. Woo, movies.