Is it Friday yet?

I have been reading sTori Telling and finding it interesting. I usually would have finished it by now, but I read while I dry my hair so it takes longer to finish a book.

I am down 4.6 lbs with weigh in tomorrow. Duane is down 12.3 lbs. He is finding that he can wear some of his old favorite t-shirts that he felt were too tight before. He is still wearing the same 1 pair of shorts. I told him that hopefully he will be lucky and these shorts will last till it is pants wearing time. I am doubtful!

Tv is getting in full swing and it is really irritating when there are 3 shows on in the same time slot. Our DVR can only record 2 things at the same time! No, I don't watch too much tv thankyouverymuch.

Work is fine (it only sucks instead of super sucking). It looks like I might get a new laptop. One of the other staff members pointed out that it was kind of strange for the IT person to not have a laptop (I have a desktop). The previous IT person was allowed to keep her laptop.

We got our new featherbed and it is awesome! We have had our old one for quite awhile (2 years maybe?) and after awhile they get squished. I still haven't found any new dress pants. They don't have the black pants that I bought last year at JcPenney's anymore (it seems they stopped carrying short sizes in misses) and petite pants are not fitting quite right (the length is good but the top half is bad). You really don't want to know how many stores I have been in trying on pants.

It is cut and color time tonight and I can't wait. I have been spacing out my appointments longer than 6 weeks and now that my hair is long it drives me a bit nutty. I also have a strangely shaped head so headbands all look totally weird on me. My hair is also very fine, so it is difficult to find a hair clip that works. My scalp is sensitive too, so wearing a ponytail all day makes my head hurt. No wonder I had my hair short for so long!

My nieces bday party is this Saturday and it has been quite some time since the whole family has been together. We were all pretty busy doing our own thing this summer. It will be nice to see everyone. I also need to clean up the yard so I can put my Halloween decorations. I am sure Duane is thrilled that it is decorating season again!

I totally forgot....per the usual

To pick up my reserved copy of sTORI Telling at the library. I think I can still pick it up tomorrow though!

I watched the second episode of the new 90210 and was still underwhelmed at the writing. Predictable again, but not quite as weird as the first episode. I do love Kelly Taylor on the show but not her subplot (who is her baby's daddy, Dillon or Brandon?). Brenda has been in and out, but she looks weird (plastic surgery?).

I lost 3lbs at Weight Watchers this past week, but Duane is doing awesome. He has been to the gym all week and wears a pedometer now to count his steps.

One of Duane's favorite local breweries is looking for a new assistant brewer to start next year. It is something I could definitely apply for. I am learning more at my job with the new title (through necessity) but it isn't awesome. I think I will be looking for something new next year anyway.

This weather this weekend was really sucky and didn't inspire much. We cleaned Duane's office (HIDEOUS), spent too much time looking for brown dress pants for me, saw Babylon A.D. (not awesome, but Vin Diesel is yummy), went to Tyranena, and watched TV. Oh, I almost forgot we ordered a new feather bed from QVC today, can't wait to get that!!

I also conquered a problem at work and I just about did a happy dance. I upgraded the wireless router at one of our offices and couldn't get their printer/scanner/fax machine back on the network. I bought them a new machine, which they immediately complained about. I went back last week and got the old machine back on the network and working! It took me a couple tries but I finally figured it out. Unfortunately the hard drive I was trying to clone tonight did not work out so well, but I think that is because the drive is shot.

I am up late working on some laundry, so I better go finish it up so I can get to bed.

Behind per the usual

So we ended up not ripping up the kitchen and it looks like we will be using IKEA cabinets. The floor is there is really grossing me out, can't wait to rip it up. The downside is that I need to pack/donate/get rid of everying in the cabinets.

Instead we drove to Michigan and drank beer all weekend, some of us more than others. Don't you think your wife deserves some nice treatment after suggesting/doing most of the driving/putting up with someone's drunk self? Me too.

We are both doing Weight Watchers now and Duane is doing a very good job of following it. He has realized that he was probably eating twice the amount of calories he is now eating on plan. We have been exercising more too. Lots more upsides to this than downsides, but it does involve more planning and cooking. We also got a Wii Fit, but we haven't gotten it all set up yet.

The weather has cooled off here, but it is still warm during the day. Our pumpkin patch is growing (only 1 baby pumpkin right now), so hopefully it doesn't get too cold before more pumpkins grow.

I finished watching the new 90210 last night. I thought the writing and situations were extremely predictable. It is no where near as witty or glamorous as Gossip Girl. They seemed to throw weird dialog in there just for the hell of it (like the penis convo). I am dvring it tonight and hoping that it improves.

I am working at the Governor's Mansion tonight (little side job with a friend from work). More money for clothes!

Oh, job is on/off as far as good/sucking goes although last week was more sucking days. We have an office about an hour away and they are the whiniest/most helpless bunch ever. Conference call tomorrow morning, should blow.

My "position"

Well I had the talk with "HR" (my transaction dept boss) and the "almost" big boss (not the owner but the VP). It was not awesome (by any stretch of the imagination).

My new fancy title: Transaction Coordinator/IT Director
My new not fancy salary: $20,000/30hr week

I was stunned frankly. We are not in the hey day of our market certainly, and we have cut 1 million dollars in costs across all the offices. But really?? So I am staying here purely out of loyalty and my need to have a job until we take our vacation in January. I can't say I will be sticking around long after we get back.

We (me enthusiastically, Duane less so) are planning on ripping up the kitchen this weekend. I am sick of everything in there (not the appliances) and can't wait till all that is left is bare walls and a new sub-floor. We are going back and forth on what flooring and cabinets to put in. We were decided previously, but things have changed now with the thought that we will sell the house next year. We feel like we should do something more neutral/traditional than previously planned. So it looks like IKEA cabinets are out and a more traditional maple are in.

Duane had a good weekend visiting with his friend Chris. They had lots of beer and participated in their yearly fantasy football draw and some golfing.

Yea right

I love it when someone doesn't follow the procedures that they have put in place, and then it is your fault when things get goofed up. Yea right.

I am doing well on my 1 movie a week promise to myself. I saw the Mummy (SUCKED pretend like it was never released), Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (good Disney movie), and tonight I will be seeing the Incredible Hulk at the cheap theater. Lots of fun!

The Midwest Beer Festival was amazing and so much fun. People were very nice and we tried tons of different beers. We were pretty drunk (the kind of drunk where you remember what happened but not all the exact details) but we had dinner and then played some Rockband. A great day.

The weather has been nice here and things have been good generally. Just really busy!

Update

I talked to my boss this week and straightened out the job situation. I will become a salaried employee (although we didn't discuss what my salary would be doh!) and he would reimburse me for buying a fancy (smart) phone. There is a need for me to receive emails wherever I may be, so thus the new Blackberry Curve. It is totally cool and I have barely tinkered with it. I am usually always the one that gets the plain jane phone, so it is fun to have a cool phone!

We are planning on going to the State Fair this weekend (YUM fried cheese curds!) and continue cleaning up the house. Our poor birch tree in the front yard has a beetle infestation. They are eating all the leaves and pooing on my car. Gotta figure out what to do about them.

The following weekend is the Midwest Beer Festival. Duane has really been looking forward to this. One of his friends from grad school is traveling here to go to it. Another friend was supposed to come, but predictably bailed this week (in an email no less!).

Summer is shooting by, but I do look foward to good sleeping weather (and no air con)

Did I mention

As far as I know I am not being paid any more money or working any more than 30 hours. This is not my forever job nor has it been any fun for the last week and a half.

The last month has been stressful. I haven't been walking the dogs as much and I have been eating way too much. I feel like I stuck my finger in a helium tank and have blown up. I keep thinking about going to the gym, but I haven't got there yet. I know it will help with the stress.

We went to see the Dark Knight and it was awesome. We also saw Hellboy and it wasn't as good as the first, but sequels usually aren't.

Not much else exciting here.

Big Update

I found out last Monday that our IT person is leaving effective August 1st. I am taking over many of her roles and now need to learn everything she knows before she leaves.

Thus I have not been posting.

Duane hogs the laptop at night, but maybe I will get on and write some more.

I went to the Dells and all I got was food poisoning

Here we are 2 weeks later.

The sink downstairs is still clogged and the back basement area isn't much cleaner. I think we will call someone this week to fix the clog.

We are 2 weeks behind in the Snatchlorette. She will be announcing her wedding before we catch up.

We did absolutely nothing on the 4th. On the 5th we went up to the WI Dells to take a ride on the Ducks. The Duck ride was cheesy, the mini-golf was kind of lame (no windmills), and dinner was not good at all. Duane picked a bad rendition of a German restaurant. His schnitzel was tiny, our friend's kaas spaetzle was gross, and I loved my sausages (but not the next day or today unfortunately). We walked around a bit to get some fudge and taffy and were quite appalled.

On the 6th we had a fabulous steak dinner in Janesville with my parents and played with their mini weinerdog.

Last week was really no good, so no need to go into that.

We do have our tickets purchased for our trip in January. 20 days in New Zealand and 3 days in Figi. Should be excellent.

Mother f'ing DVR

I can't believe Deanna kept Jesse instead of Sean, even though Jesse hasn't made out with her yet!! We didn't get to see her reasoning behind that one.

The DVR didn't record last night's NEW Snatchlorette because it was labeled in the guide as "To Be Announced". We were home but working around the house and didn't check to make sure it was recording. I was pissed.

Duane is getting a crown this afternoon and was very nervous about it. Hopefully all went ok with that. We have been having gorgeous weather lately. I don't know if it is to makeup for all the rainy weather or what. Unfortunately rainy weather + nice weather = a shit-ton of mosquitos.

No new shoes or purse yet, although I did look over the weekend.