Rain

After months of waiting for it to rain, it chooses NOW.. when I have free time to go riding, to hang out with Trigger, to do all the outdoor things I want to do.. Looks like this whole weekend is a bust for riding altogether. Trigger is going to forget what I look like. :-(

But the house will be clean. :-)

Last night was a first in our house. I burned our dinner. I made Cassoulet Stuffed Bread with hot sausage, swiss cheese, parmesan cheese, onions, thyme, bay leaves, and carrots.. but I left it under the broiler (550.. yikes!) for about 2 minutes too long and the top layer was black. Still, it must not have been terrible.. L went back for seconds.

Tonight: Citrus Glazed Chicken with Arugula Orange Salad.

I just took MonsterHead to the vet for his annual checkup. He was furious about being put in his carrier, and even more furious about being given shots and stuff. He yowled like a banshee all the way to and from the vet, and he is still stalking around the house on his little eraser toes uttering feline curses under his breath. He has gained 2 pounds in the last two months (which would be roughly equivalent to me gaining 30) and is nudging the "morbidly obese" mark.

Right now he has his head buried in the food dish. Guess I'd better remove the kitty buffet before he gains another few pounds.

I think L and I are going to check out the after Christmas sales today, and attempt to locate a decent fake Christmas tree at a decent price. Then we are going to the movies. :-)

Later: More Cleaning...
NP Update: Before Christmas I bought gasoline for a co-worker who is (supposedly) hurting in the financial department. Bonus points for being a co-worker I am not overly crazy about. I'm trying. Latest NP project: a care package for a dear friend whose kitchen is severely lacking in tools, dishes, pots and pans, etc. I have more than I could ever use, with more on the way for the wedding.. so I am making a package of the nicer and more useful things that aren't being used in my kitchen for him. Hopefully it will be well received..

More Christmas Madness

...and the Madness commenced..

T got a cute new puppy though..

Today I went and got my nails fixed (by the time we arrived back from Tallahassee, I had ripped all of the acrylic off and chewed my nails to ugly little nubs. Back to square one for me!). Now my fingers are sore, but at least I don't look like I crammed my hands through a meat grinder anymore.

Guess it's obvious that I don't handle stress well, isn't it?

I went to the BW today but didn't find ANYTHING. There was nothing there today but a huge pile of junk. I will have to try again later.

L and I went grocery shopping, which was something of an adventure. He has been in a mood ever since we got back because my menu/grocery list for the week (which we have been talking about doing for quite some time, mind you) disrupted his usual grocery shopping routine.

He mellowed a little when he tried my shepherd's pie (ground turkey, bacon, roasted red peppers, onions, carrots, celery, peas, etc etc etc topped with sour cream mashed potatoes and broiled) in my new Rachael Ray orange casserole pot. Yay. Yum-O, etc. It was ridiculously good. I even froze an extra one for later. :-)

Tomorrow: Who knows? If the weather holds, I'll be going to see Trigger!

Merry Christmas!

It's already been a great one, and we still have a long way to go. :-) Here's L with one of his gifts.. Isn't he cute?? I think he likes it, what do you think?

Here I am opening my favorite present so far.. a silver 80G iPod!!! I have always wanted one, and L got me one for Christmas!

Here I am downloading all of my music.. Yay!
Here's L with his favorite gift from me.. an upconverting DVD player. He is hard to buy gifts for, but he is really good at buying gifts for me, apparently! In addition to the iPod, he gave me 2 Ralph Lauren shirts, a beautiful Cashmere sweater, and two of the lotions from Body Shop that I love. :-)
Now we are at the in-laws' and pretty soon it will be present time again...
Later: Overeating and lots more fun!

The Christmas Condo

Here's where we're staying. :-) It's excellent!

Off to Tallahassee

Well, it's off to see the imminent future in-laws tomorrow for Christmas..
Should be some good pictures when we get back. :-)

Trigger got some new shoes today. M and his new girlfriend stopped by for a visit this afternoon, which was great. We never get to see him anymore since he lives so far away. And we went to A-Town to have dinner with F and PR, etc.

I am tired now, and anticipating 7-8 hours in the car with 2 100-lb dogs, a carful of luggage, plus Presents galore! It will be a long day.

And while we are posting pictures...

I schould schay that these schtriped schorts are fah.. pfabuloush!
Yes, it is my L in his inebriated college days! With hair! :-D

Isn't this great?

Here we have L before I met him...
He still wears that shirt, but not the glasses.
For some reason, I really like this picture though...

I (heart) Christmas

Make Me Sick

Yes, folks, it is true: I make me sick.
I can't seem to slow down long enough to get well, so I have been staying sick. Add pressure on top of the pressure, why don't I?? Who wants to have a runny nose at their wedding? Certainly not me.

Because of the wedding and the myriad other things I have going on, I am stressed out big time. Because of the stress, I am having problems at work. Because there are problems at work and stress everywhere, including work, I feel angry and exhausted and...

To be perfectly honest, I feel like a toxic waste dump under siege these days. (Barbarians at the gates! Bone melting nuclear waste streaming in from all directions! Agh!)

Of course people say that one day I will look back on this and laugh. I'll laugh NOW; let's see YOU hold up under this kind of pressure, Big Shot!

To top it all off, I think my medication makes me aggressive under stress.. or at least amplifies that side of my nature more than usual. I definitely need a physical outlet more than I used to. So I got up this morning and worked out. Hopefully today will be at least marginally better than yesterday.

At least I got to see Trigger yesterday. He is so cute and fluffy now! He does not like my whinnying horse ringtone on my cell phone though. Apparently whatever the phone-horse is saying, them's fightin words! (Note to self: turn cell phone off at the barn!)

Later: Christmas cards! Packing! More wedding stuff! Oh My!

So Much to Say

Wow, i have been so busy in the past few weeks!
I have also been sick. Funny thing.. the doctor can give you all the medicine in the world, but it isn't going to help if you don't ever stop to rest. I'm still a little sick, to tell the truth, but there's too much to do to quit.

I was out of work on Friday, slept all day, got nothing done. I haven't been to see Trigger this weekend, but with a 30-degree wind chill factor right now, and the remnants of the flu or whatever, I don't think that is a good idea today.

Also, the house is a disaster and I still have Christmas shopping to do.
Not to mention laundry. And wedding stuff. Don't even get me started on wedding stuff.
Sent out the rehearsal dinner invitations yesterday. Got one more round of invitations to get off, and then it's on to the thank you notes.

And Christmas cards. Oh yeah.
Later: FSU Christmas party this evening...

Our First Shower..

Our first wedding shower was yesterday, at Mr. B's house. A great time was had by all.
The best gifts of the night were an "Island of Misfit Toys" ornament from AC, and two huge concrete gargoyles from CJ & R. :-)

In other news, I am feeling pretty crappy from the creeping crud that has crept up again. I think it is definitely a sinus infection already, and is probably working its way into bronchitis again before it's over with.. maybe even an ear infection thrown in for good measure. Bleh.

I hate being sick, and the more stressed I get, the sicker I stay.
I need to slow down. And I need to get this list of stuff done, too. Hard to do both. Very, very hard. I did get a lot done this weekend though.

Tomorrow: Back to work with the new schedule. Also, HOA board meeting.. O Joy.

Literally Thousands of Words..

Here we are at the little Italian place where we took Mom and GF for lunch. It was quite a production to get there, but it was worth it. GF, Me, West, and Mom..
Here are GF and Mom while I was working on the shed. Unbeknownst to me, the giant fat cat was sneaking into my car while I was taking this picture. Apparently he wanted a vacation. :-)

Mom was overjoyed to be riding on the golf cart, outside. It was a very hard visit this time, because she doesn't realize that she isn't going to get any better, and GF and GM are working waaaay too hard for two elderly people to keep everything going. Something has to happen there. But if I am to be the "agent of change" then it will have to wait until AFTER the wedding.

But after that, Clean Sweep, Here We Come!
Here we have West and Brie, his new girlfriend. She is AWESOME!! XJW, so she understands his issues, funny as heck, so they goof off together all the time, and ... as you can see, she is so cute! I love her and I hope they stay together. I haven't seen two people so perfect for each other in a while. Oh yeah, a nd they are coming to the wedding. :-)
Here I am at the Grove Park Inn, riding in Santa's Sleigh. Grove Park was beautiful.. I wish I could take L and go there for a weekend! He would love it!
There was a gingerbread house competition going on while we were there, and there were some fantastic creations!! These are only a few of them, and you can't see them very well.. but they were cool.

Ah, so. In other news:

1) I filed another police report in response to "Roy's" latest shenanigan. I don't need this stress on top of everything else. If he keeps ramping it up like he has been, he is going to end up in jail. I will not tolerate anymore of this.

2) Had an appointment with a life coach. That was interesting. Basically affirmation of everything i have been working on in my life lately.

3) I went to see Trigger yesterday evening for a little while. I miss him. I don't get to see him enough. He is all fuzzy and warm. I just brushed him and petted him for an hour, and then came home. L made spaghetti. Yum.

4) Weighed in this morning at 120 lb. Haven't seen that number in a long time. I need to start working out and eating more again. I think this is enough weight loss for me..

Today: Going to get the marriage license!
Appointment with the DJ to finalize music for the reception!

I'm back and..

..the situation is normal.

A million things to do.
A-ville was really nice.. and I met a life coach. That's an interesting blog for another day, though.

We got another wedding gift in the mail... It's a Waterford serving platter. It is so beautiful! Wow. I am blown away by the generosity of our friends. I never expected this.. I only put the expensive stuff on the registry so that we could get 20% off after the wedding. Never expected that anyone would buy it for us.
I plan to buy thank you cards tomorrow, because we need to start sending them out very soon.

Got another ridiculous communication from "Roy." This man is a real freak. Seriously, it is getting frightening. I almost had a heart attack this evening when some kid selling magazines rang the bell. This situation cannot stand.


For now, L and I just watched the Heroes finale. Tomorrow I might go see Trigger after work. And then... on to another adventure. Pictures from Grove Park Inn tomorrow!