at 50

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'becca is ready for a long weekend.

every day in march?

the nablopomo theme for march is "giving (up)" - and the parentheses mean the "up" part is optional. it seems to correlate with the lenten season. i'm thinking about going for it. i could blog every day in march. it's only 31 days. and i'm a super star.

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'becca is going out for chips & salsa.

aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

nope, nothing's wrong. just feeling like i have way too much energy for my own good. i should be sleeping. really, i should. i'm fighting off some sort of bug and sleeping would be good for me. but i have got so much stinkin' energy, it's ridiculous. i'm typing too fast for the computer to keep up and making way too many typos in the process. the energy may be related to the fact i ate an actual meal tonight. the past 40 hours or so have been mostly pretzels & white rice, with some minty gum mixed in to calm earl down when he gets too feisty. tonight holly & i went to a chinese restaurant and had sesame chicken. yummy. i think it's fair to judge food's deliciousness by how excited you are for the leftovers as they're being packaged up.

yup, totally full ... but already pumped about heating up the leftovers tomorrow for lunch? that's a good sign.

i got my federal tax return today. yay! don't know what i'm doing with it ... but, again, i think i should pull it out of the bank quickly so i don't just randomly spend it. do i buy a tv? if i buy a tv, i need to rearrange my living room to accommodate the tv. i like the way the living room is currently situated - as it has no gaping hole for a tv. but it would be nice to curl up on the sofa sometimes & watch a movie. although the sofa, in & of itself, is a totally different conversation. and i'd like to have a wii, which would play nicely with a new tv. but then i wonder how long i'd be entertained by the wii before it becomes an expensive dust collector. it's a fun thing to do with people around, but when i'm by myself? yeah, there's a pretty good chance the novelty would wear off. so perhaps that's not the best way to spend the money.

i could save it all for ireland. or i could use part of it to do some clothes shopping. or purchase a nice furniture set for my bedroom. or replace my sofa.

or i could let ikea replace my sofa. you know, after i actually call them & let them know it broke.

or i could fix the sofa myself. i do like doing things myself, and i don't like telephones. although, "by myself" actually means asking my dad to help me. because he's smarter than me & much more handy. :)

no movement today on the amazon packages. or, at least, none has been reported. i know that more than likely i'll probably receive the packages long before their status is updated online. i still believe online tracking only exists to prove it's possible to both give the customer a feeling of power & irritate the snot out of them at the same time.

i'm contemplating changing my netflix subscription, again. i'm currently on the one-at-a-time unlimited package. and i'm averaging 5 dvds a month. that works out to $1.80 per movie. i'm comfortable with that. so if i bump it up to the next package, which gives me two dvds at a time, and watch 8 movies per month, i'll still be paying the same per movie. i'm thinking that's quite possible. because what's better than having one alan alda movie in the house? having TWO alan alda movies in the house. obviously.

papa john's is currently offering a large 'ultimate pepperoni' pizza for $11.99. it is apparently "loaded with double the pepperoni and three cheeses on a thin & crispy crust!" sounds pretty good to me. anyone wanna come over for pizza?

i saw a bedroom set in the ashley ad that i like. it seems pricey ... but i think all furniture is pricey. let me see if i can find a photo for you. because hey, so long as i'm awake & rambling, i might as well giv eyou as much information as i can. ;)


cute, right? unfortunately it would also mean changing bed sizes as it comes in a queen, and i currently have a full. hmph. too many decisions.

do we think i should take advantage of the current housing market & look into getting a sweet deal on buying a house?

has anyone else ever noticed that their house gets louder the later it gets? have i mentioned this here before? for example, i have to turn my ice maker off at night because i'm convinced it's twice as loud once the sun goes down. and the furnace? yeah, i just know it doesn't make all those clicking noises during the day.

you know, i could get my money back from ikea & ditch the sofa. move the loveseat in front of the windows and add one of those fabulous gray chairs from target on either side. that would leave the opposite wall open for a tv.

or an aquarium!

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'becca, 'becca, 'becca ...

sugary goodness

a top view of sunday's sugary goodness. three layers of fudge brownies filled with white fluff (powdered sugar, cream cheese & cool whip) and topped with dark chocolate ganache.



a side view showing the ganache creeping over the edge.

yum.

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'becca is having dinner with her sister tonight.

gloom in transit

today one of my amazon.com packages shipped from amazon's munster warehouse. this warehouse is exactly one stoplight west of my office. just two days ago i said to myself, "boy, if i ever have anything ship out of that warehouse, it would be so much easier on everyone if they'd just let me walk down & pick it up." they estimate it will be delivered to my office in three days.

falling shipped out today from whitestown, indiana (northwest of indianapolis) and should arrive in five days.

my batteries shipped out today from walnut, california and should arrive in three to eight days.

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'becca is waiting for her laundry to be done so she can go to bed.

state tax refund

why pull it out of the bank when i can spend it on amazon instead? coming soon to a mailbox near me: two replacement li-ion batteries for my digital rebel (yes, two. they're not canon-branded batteries, so i got two for less than the price of one. with plenty of time before takeoff to replace them if they're garbage.), falling the goblin edition and gloom.

how many bloody games did i say i needed to add to my collection? two down ...

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'becca can go to the atm on her way to dinner ... why rush the day?

missing piece

the jigsaw puzzle did, indeed, have 1000 pieces, as the box stated. however, this piece obviously doesn't fit this hole. oh well, the puzzle is still done. and that's something. :)

i was pleased to learn that my bank is open until 2pm on saturdays. so, of course, i'm just procrastinating longer. why shower & change now when i can wait another hour? truth is, i'd rather not leave the house at all today. what with the wind & all, i'd rather just stayed curled up inside with fuzzy slippers & flannel 'jamas.

going to the bank, however, will accomplish several things. A) it'll get the rent paid. 2) i'll get some cash for the next couple of weeks. and, i'll pull out my state tax refund so i don't randomly spend it on mundane things like toilet paper & shower gel. which reminds me, i should run to target while i'm out.

i haven't decided what i'm going to do with my tax refunds this year. the state refund was larger than usual, but still not very big. it basically covers the h&r block fee for filing my taxes online & maybe dinner out afterwards. i like how filing the federal return is free, but they charge for the state return. it's smart, really. because once i've got the federal done online ... why wouldn't i just pay them to do the state, too? it's quick, it's easy, and at this point i'm feeling grateful for the free federal return. good gimmick, h&r block. good gimmick. i almost feel like i SHOULD pay you because you gave me one for free.

part of me wants to use the refund for a nice tv & a wii. strange, huh?

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'becca slept for almost 12 hours and kinda wants to go take a nap.

small things

today i have not one, but two examples of how it's the small things that make me happy.

A. i went through the mickey d's drive thru this morning with every intention of purchasing a small orange juice to compliment my sausage egg mcmuffin. however, SHAMROCK SHAKES ARE BACK!! that's right; it's so exciting it gets all caps and double exclamation points. my morning could not have had a better start.

2. it's still light enough outside that there was no good reason for my porch light to be on when i came home from work. i love when the days start getting longer.

a welcome to the maternal moose over there on the blog roll. my co-worker & game-night friend matt is expecting to meet his first child tonight and plans to keep us all in the loop through his blog. moose & gina (his wife) are good people. no doubt they'll be good parents, too. and they'll be raising one crazy competitive spoons player. :)

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'becca is finishing her jigsaw puzzle tonight.

fire

i went to walgreen's after work this evening. as i was standing in line, i looked at my cell phone and mentally dared it to ring. yes, i mentally dared it to ring & have someone on the other end ask how my day was. why? because my answer would have been, "i'm standing in line at the wal. i'm holding a diet dr. pepper and a bag of gardetto's snack mix. i'm contemplating buying a snickers bar to go with it. how do you think my day was?"

tonight i am grilling. i smell like charcoal & lighter fluid. my fingers have grease on them. life is good.

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'becca loves grilling in february.

on being off balance

i feel off balance. i can't point to the problem ... but something feels askew. i leave work feeling like there's something i've forgotten, and i wake up in the morning with no desire to get out of bed.

i had every intention of firing up the grill tonight. when i came out of the store, however, the rain & wind changed my mind. it turns out my desire for grilled cow was less than my desire to be warm & dry. so i made my bacon cheddar bbq burger inside. and enjoyed the crispy claussen pickles i hadn't intended on buying.

speaking of pleasant surprises at the grocery store, i found paper bags at the self-check lane tonight.

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'becca thinks she's going to bed early.

on the armadillo

i must say that if i turn my head, i can see the grim marriage picture in yesterday's fairytale post. for me, however, it's more of a refusal to believe that i'm missing a vital part of life because i'm not married. or that i have this gaping hole & life will begin when it's filled with a husband. i deny that those things are true. and i agree with patti; married or not - life is beautiful.

yesterday i started working my way back through will cuppy's "how to attract the wombat". this is a fabulous quick-read book full of animal kingdom information. perhaps. :) today's nuggets of knowledge are on the armadillo ...

"the armadillo wears a coat of armor consisting of bony shields fore and aft, and tough, flexible bands across the middle of his back. this protects him against possible attack from above. while the armadillo is thinking how safe he is on top, some other mammal flips him upside down and has a nice meal of raw armadillo. let that be a lesson.

the bony shell of the nine-banded armadillo is about fifteen inches long and is made into ornamental baskets for the tourist trade. in armadillo society all individuals are born free and equal. every young armadillo starts life with exactly the same chance to become a basket."

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'becca thinks sleep sounds nice.

the world's shortest fairytale

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?' The girl said "no." And the girl lived happily ever-after and went shopping, dancing, camping, drank martinis, always had a clean house, never had to cook, did whatever she wanted, never argued, traveled more, had many lovers, saved money, and had all the hot water to herself. She went to the theatre, never watched sports, never wore freakin' lacy lingerie that went up her butt, had high self esteem, never cried or yelled, felt and looked fabulous in sweat pants and was pleasant all the time.

The End

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'becca checked marlana's page before posting this. she really needs to update. ;)