Monday, October 24, 2005

E-Ring: It’s OK. I like that it’s pro-military. Dennis Hopper is a terrible actor. I like the female Marine sergeant a lot. Andrew McCarthy is the perfect smarmy politician wannabe.

Without a Trace: I knew when this show started a few years ago that I would really like it. However, I was still watching ER at that time and so I chose not to get into it. I wish I had - great show.

Close to Home: I kind of like it. It’s still early, but so far the episodes have been interesting and I’m starting to like the characters.

Numb3rs: I miss the Sabrina Lloyd character from last season, but her replacement isn’t bad. I’m not sure I like the gungho agent they added. Still the best part of the show is the relationship between the dad and brothers.

Invasion & Threshold: Both shows are about aliens invading Earth. Invasion is about the aliens who came through a hurricane and have “invaded” the bodies of some storm survivors. Threshold‘s aliens came through this weird crystalline thing in the sky that emits a sound that causes we humans to mutate into the alien creatures. Invasion is the better of the two shows.

The Apprentice: Martha: ***spoilerish*** Good changes made to the teams last week. I do not understand why Jim remains except that someone is telling Martha that he makes compelling TV. He is completely loathesome. And I plan to buy the salad dressing that Matchstick created - it sounds delish.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

...that the 49ers sucked this badly?

Yay for the Redskins, but good grief.

1. Invitations - stuffed and sealed and ready for delivery to the post office tomorrow.

2. Beau and I hit the mall yesterday to explore jewelry stores for his wedding ring. I think we went into all of the stores, about seven or eight of them, and ended up finding the ring he likes in the last one. It is special ordered because he wanted a wider band than they had in the store, but that’s OK since we have time. It should arrive in a couple of weeks and then I’ll place the order for the engraving.

3. The program covers are printing as I type this. The guts will wait since they may need changing at the last minute. The stuff on the covers won’t be changing, so I thought I’d get that one task done.

4. We punched the holes in the favor tags last night. Now we just need to assemble the actual favors and we can attach them.

5. Unrelated to the wedding: we did watch disc one of the Firefly DVDs. Such a fun show and it’s crazy that it didn’t last longer on TV.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

1. My stop at Kinkos on the way home was better than expected - the guy cut the maps and stuff while I waited. Beau and I will stuff the invitations today and they will go into the mail on Monday. Woo!

2. I’m coloring my hair as I type this. It was needed and the timing is right for the next touch-up a couple of weeks before the wedding.

3. It’s raining today, so I’m not inclined to go out. However, I do need to go to the grocery store (Wegmans, of course) or Target. Or both.

4. I’m going to try to talk Beau into watching the Firefly DVDs I had for a while.

5. I guess I should see about repacking my crap here since I’m moving in a couple of weeks. Ugh. Yay! Three moves in a year is quite disruptive.

6. I really need to work on the beads - I’ve slacked off the last couple of nights. Related - my mother met with the florists yesterday and it’s cool how we’re completely sympatico on ideas. They love the look of the beads and are really excited about using the extras. They agreed to finish off my bouquets and bouts/corsages - I didn’t feel confident enough about my ribbon skills and asked them to do it. 

Friday, October 21, 2005

I just got a phone call from HQ to notify me that I was selected for the Budget Analyst position in my district. Takes effect Oct 30, which is the start of the next pay period.

My boss had called me about an hour ago to let me know he got the list of candidates for the position. “How many are on the list?” I asked. “Just you,” he said, which surprised me because I was sure that HQ folks would have put in for the job.

So that pay raise will be nice now that I’ll have a hefty rent and Christmas and a wedding in December. It’s been a good Friday.

The Lord is good - things are falling into place so well, it’s a little scary. But it makes me more confident that there is a perfect job for Beau that will present itself at the right time.

We have a house!

I called Management Dude and he confirmed that we do have the house. He’s going to mail the paperwork to Beau to sign, Beau will then get the papers to me to sign, and then I’ll arrange to meet with Management Dude to swap the papers and first month’s rent check for the keys. Woo!

I called Beau and we spent a few minutes online setting up our phone and cable service. We’ll wait until we get the papers to arrange for power/gas since I’m not sure which companies serve that area in Fairfax.

Next up is a phone call to PODS to arrange for that to be delivered. Added later: POD will be delivered on November 3.

It’s a nice 3-bedroom townhouse, with a basement that has a good sized utility/laundry room, storage room, half bath, and wood-burning fireplace. There’s a deck off of the dining room that has steps down into the small fenced-in backyard. The living room has a bay window. It’ll be a good first home for us and we’re grateful to have this worked out finally.

Next on the list of things we need and are praying for: a job for Beau so that we can pay for it.

Survivor: Guatemala - Judd is nutso. That is all.

CSI - Nick Stokes has always been my favorite character (and not just because he’s easy on the eyes). I was worried that he was going to be killed off in last season’s cliff hanger. I’ve liked how they’ve developed his character this season, in the aftermath of his ordeal last season. Last night’s episode was brilliant and George Eads should be nominated for an Emmy for that performance.

Beau and I will not be going to West Virginia this weekend. Turns out his our friends had other company coming this weekend. So we’re going to go next weekend.

That poses a slight challenge in the signing of the lease for our new house, though. Yes, the house is ours, essentially. I got a voicemail from the management dude when I got home - he said that he was still waiting to hear from the homeowners, who live overseas, but that he didn’t think they’d say no. Also their policy is to give the owners three days to respond to the email - if they don’t hear back after three days, then he makes the decision and he said that as far as he’s concerned the house is ours. He sent the email to them on Tuesday, which makes today Day 3. Yay!

I’ll be calling him today to see how we can coordinate the lease signing this weekend or by mail. I don’t plan to move until the first weekend of November, so we have a couple of weeks to get everything legal. Now I need to call the utility companies and the PODS people to get those details lined up for a smooth (ha!) transition to the house.

Since we are not going to WVa, Beau is coming up here this weekend. The wedding priority is to stuff the invitation envelopes and try to get them ready for mailing on Monday or Tuesday. I printed the maps/directions last night and I just need to take them to Kinkos to get cut down to size. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to pick them up tomorrow mid-day if I drop them off tonight on the way home from work (I meant to do that on my way in, but I needed to stop at the PO to mail a package for Mom and that was on a different route).

In other wedding planning news, Mom is meeting with the florists this morning to finalize the contract (yes, we’re way behind on this). She and I brainstormed a bit last night and made some changes in what we want now that we’re getting closer and some other decorative items have been purchased. We’re really not going to have a ton of traditional flowers, but it’s going to be very pretty. Festive. We’re excited.

It’s all coming together.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

I finally got a call from the other insurance company yesterday. The lady was very nice, took my statement, and then assured me that they had no plans to dispute their liability for the damage to my car. She also said she would contact my insurance company about the deductible and would send a check right away for that. Interestingly, I have yet to be billed for the deductible, so I doubt I will be since the other company will probably pay them directly for everything. I asked about that to make sure I wasn’t going to get an unexpected bill later and she said that I wouldn’t - they were going to take care of everything with my insurance company. Nice.

I just talked to the body shop and I was told that they’re still working on the repairs to my car. They found additional damage after they started taking it apart, so that has added to the time it will take to fix it. She said that I should get a call from them early next week to let me know that they were done with the repairs and were starting the repainting. At that point it will only be a couple more days before I get my car back.

In the meantime, I’m adjusting to the rental. I still try to open the doors before actually unlocking them with the key because I’m so used to the fob on my key chain. I’m also getting used to the fuel gauge, which binged at me this morning to indicate low fuel. I have no idea how much gas I have in the tank, but the needle is almost touching the red line. I’m hoping there’s enough to get me to a gas station on the way home. Also, I learned this morning that there is no windshield washer fluid. Not a drop. The car only has 5000 miles on it. How can the washer fluid be empty already?

I wake up early so that I can get in some reading every day. I haven’t been disciplined in my Bible reading because I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by other things - computer and TV, mostly. But after one of the workshops on having a more effective devotional life at the women’s conference a couple of weeks ago, I was convicted that I really needed to be intentional about this area of my life and faith. And so where I had been trying to read through the book of Acts, but had stalled, I picked it back up and finished it this morning. How? By walking by the computer as if it doesn’t exist and ignoring the TV until I had spent some time in the Word.

So my morning routine has become:

1. Wake up and get out of bed.

2. Hit the bathroom and brush the teeth.

3. Let Annie outside.

4. Feed Mr. Kitty (Annie must not be in the area while he eats his food or he doesn’t actually get his food)

5. Start the coffee.

6. Begin reading (while the cat finishes eating)

7. Once the cat is done eating, as indicated by the slapping of his paws around Annie’s dish (don’t ask why, I don’t know), go let Annie back inside.

8. Get coffee and return to the reading until finished with the goal for the day.

After I have finished my time with the Lord, I will then turn on the TV and spend the remainder of the “free” time before I have to get ready for work reading whatever fiction I’m into at the moment. Right now it’s Harry Potter and I only have one more chapter before I’m done with that one. I brought it with me to work to read on my lunch hour so that I can then start the new Vince Flynn novel that I bought yesterday.

Oh, and my new Bible reading will be the book of Romans beginning tomorrow morning.

The hammering has resumed outside my window. Should make for a productive day.

4:24am was the time on the clock when I was awakened by Mr. Kitty. He had jumped up on the bed and was snuggling in close to my face, purring loudly. Then he gave me a little lick on the cheek, which is the new thing he’s started this week, and before I knew it he had also taken a bite. I flung him off of the bed and rolled over to go back to sleep.

A few minutes later, he hopped up again. This time he was laying on my arm because I was on my side and his face was into my neck. Sweet little lick and then he bit my neck.

So his new thing is to lick and then bite the spot he licked. He repeated it a third time on my hand a little later. Dang, cat! I eventually got out of bed at about 5:15am because he’s very persistent and wouldn’t leave me alone.

Later, he and Annie played chase for a bit and then both retreated to their favorite sleeping spots: she goes under the bed; he curls up on the chair. They were still in those spots when I left for work.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

LOST or baseball? Baseball or LOST?

Choices…

Truth is I’ll probably watch LOST, but will check in on the game during commercials.

They’re having the brickwork redone in front of the courthouse. Why? I have no clue.

What I do know is that they are jackhammering right outside my window. I’m looking at a lot of orange plastic barrier stuff, three guys in florescent yellow vests, and a backhoe.

Needless to say, work has slowed down considerably in the past few minutes.

E-Bay write up about leather pants.

You are bidding on a mistake.

We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants.

Go read the rest. It’s well worth the click on the link.

[via Evangelical Outpost]