86 posts from 2006

I've been having a lot of fun with pictures recently.

I'm not one to want to get my photo taken, but I've relented over the past several months in order to have some record of the wonderful first 5 months of my marriage.  I cringe sometimes, at the photos, but I have taken a "that's me - then" attitude, with a wait-and-see slant for next year.

I bought a Lexmark all-in-one on Black Friday and then while I was out getting labels for Christmas cards at Office Depot the other day I scored a box of 250 4x6 photo sheets on clearance for $4.  I wasn't sure if they would work, so I only bought one.  I should have scooped up the remaining ones, as well.

I've printed and printed and printed some more, bought some photo albums and started putting them in and describing them in great detail: who it is, where it is (including street name and address, if I know it) and when it is.  I want to look back and *know*.

I'm only printing out the best few - not of me, but of the subjects in general.  The rest I've got stored on the 250GB external hard drive - God I love that thing.

I sprung for a 1GB SD card a couple of weeks ago, which holds 500+ pictures.  Then there was a hell of a deal from Buy.com on a 2GB one, so I purchased that, too.  It hasn't arrived yet.

I also got a new camera bag and a cardreader.  I hate lugging around the Easyshare dock, and the USB cable that is supposed to fit the camera for transfer doesn't.

I don't know if I mentioned work last week, but it was crazy cool.  We had our monthly celebration meeting and I got not one, not two, but three honors:

1.  Top sales person in my department - picture on the wall out front, plus a $40 gas card.

2.  Office attitude award - a "trophy" to keep on my desk for a month, plus a $40 gas card.

3.  Team spirit award - another "trophy" to keep on my desk for a month, then I get to pass this one on.

The two gas cards got added to the other two gas cards I won for sales for the prior months.  The gas station they are from is the only one of its kind in the area and it's not exactly on my way anyplace.  Irish used one of the cards on Friday when we were on the way out to his parents' for dinner.

Speaking of Irish, his present is wrapped and under the tree.

And speaking of the tree, we named him Lester.  It fits.

Christmas shopping is nowhere near done.  We have to sit down and make some lists.  I have to finish up my Secret Santas, one this week and one next week.  We have three parties that we're attending this week: one each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Maybe two on Saturday, but we'll see how the first one goes.

The Christmas cards are nearly done.  I completed the last of them last night.

I went to the post office at lunch yesterday for postage and the line was out the door so I left.  I went back after work to get postage out of the machine and all of the seasonal packs were sold out.  I ended up buying "Crops of the Americas" so our Christmas Cards are going out with pictures of beans and hot peppers and corn on them.

And so it goes.

The worst thing about holiday shopping, I think, is the inordinately large amount of stuff I end up buying for myself.

The electronics sales this season have been crazy good, so I've purchased:

1.  1GB SD Card for the digital camera

2.  Portable DVD player

3.  2GB flash drive

4.  250GB external hard drive

The external hard drive we just got yesterday.  I cleaned almost 15GB of crap off my laptop last night (and by crap I mean pictures, documents, downloaded program files and ripped DVDs, not to mention the mp3s).  Then Irish attached it to his desktop and cleaned quite a bit off his.

He then set the drive to "share" so I could continue to use it through the wireless network.  250GB is like a bottomless pit of storage space.

We'll probably have it filled up by next summer.

Work is actually going well.  I feel like I have a better handle on my job.  I'm selling a lot.  Commission numbers keep getting bigger.  It feels good to finally be succeeding.

Now if I could just translate that into weight loss...

Today was a bad day, workwise and healthwise.  Work was insane, and my eye's been hurting, and I'm still sick.

BUT... my cell phone rang, and it was my grandfather.  Since we just got back from there I answered with "What did we forget?"

He laughed and said he was just calling to tell me how much he and the family enjoyed our visit and that they loved Irish and felt like he fit in perfectly.

Very nice to hear.

and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go...

That's us, heading out in about 45 minutes to drive the long drive to Mississippi to visit my family.

I'm so excited.  I've missed everyone so much.  And they are going to love Irish.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

This movie is absolutely charming, completely inspiring.  Odd subject matter, and I wondered how it would be handled and I was delighted.

Go see it.  You won't be sorry.

I walked the whole 5K and it was really no big deal.  In fact, when it was over I couldn't believe it was over already.  I expected to be out of breath and/or miserable and I was neither.  The weather was perfect.

I'm definitely doing that again sometime.

What's your favorite kind of Girl Scout cookie?
Submitted by My Lovely One.

Thin Mints.  Followed closely by Samoas.  Are you selling?

It's been all about the work this week.  I feel like I've been treading water for weeks now and this week things finally started coming together.

I've sold a LOT this week, and quoted even more.  In fact, I quoted as many accounts today as I've quote in the last two weeks combined.

I've made enough in commission to make my car payment nearly twice, with a little left over for gasoline.  And the month's not over yet.

Tomorrow is the big Heart Walk.  My first ever 5K.  Is it weird that I'm a little bit nervous?

I didn't make my goal.  I was short by $75.  Boo  :(

After the Heart Walk I'm going to come home and watch my football game, then I'm going out to get the car washed and vacuumed courtesy of the dealership.  Irish and I leave for Mississippi on Wednesday morning, and it will be nice to be in a clean, fresh car.

I do love my car.

I cannot wait to see my family again.  My brother and SIL are coming with my nephew, and I'm going to see my aunt for the first time in years.  I haven't seen my dad since October of last year.  Lordy, I have missed them all.

It's going to be a great time.

P.S.  I got my answer yesterday afternoon.  Definitely not pregnant.

I think I need another mental health day.  Today is just kicking my ass.

You want to know what really sucks?

This really sucks:

You suspect you might be pregnant so you go out and spend a small fortune on a couple of home pregnancy tests.  Being a good girl, you follow directions and wait until the following morning to take the test because that is when the results are most accurate.

The next morning you wake up and stumble into the bathroom, wrestle the stick out of the foil packet (this is NOT military secrets for jeebus-sake - why are these so hard to open?), pee on it, then set it on the counter and wait.

When you come back, the result window is only half indicating and the control window is completely empty.  You consult the instructions to divine what that means and it says "invalid result - try another test".

Yay.  All of my pee went on that stick, so now I have to wait.  I think I'll try again on Friday if I don't have my answer by then.

What's your method for calculating a tip?

Well, depending on the tax rate for the area, it's fairly simple.  If the tax rate is 7.5 to 8% you can just double the tax for the tip (I usually double the tax and round up).  Otherwise, I take the total bill and do the whole percentage thing.  For instance:

Total bill $8.51

10% = .85

so 5% would be half, or .43

so 15% would be $1.28

20% would be $1.70

In this case I would probably just round it up to $2.00