Sunday, November 30

Running out of time

I feel like I am running out of time. There are things that I have to do or be able to do by a certain date. For example, I have to bake 4 dozen cookies by 7pm tonight and I have to know how to drive the new car by December 15th. It's amazing what a little pressure will do.

The cookies I chose for tonight - for my 4th annual Christmas Cookie Exchange - are called Chocolate Crinkle. I tested out the recipe earlier this week and got good feedback from the test subjects (my and J's coworkers). I meant to bake them yesterday so I wouldn't have to worry about it today, but that didn't happen. So this morning I made the dough and threw it in the fridge. Not sure why it has to be refrigerated, but it does. I am a good girl and follow instructions. Three hours later, time to bake! I haven't done the final count, but I have well over the 4 dozen cookies required for the exchange. Phew!

The car. I have been out driving a bunch of times, always with J and hardly on big roads. Mostly at night too when there are fewer cars on the road. I tend to get a little panicky when I have someone behind me. I hate that I can't always get going as fast as I'd like to and I'm always worried about stalling. But I'm getting there and actually took the little car out on my own today. I went to the grocery store (I'm positive J will be ecstatic when he doesn't always have to do groceries with me) to pick up some food and some prizes for tonight.

I made it there and back without stalling and actually only had one hitch - I tried to start it in 3rd gear again. And succeeded! But bad. I know that. I wish there was a little thing on the dash that would show me what gear I was in. Without J in the car I tend to talk to myself.. you know, the typical pep talk: "I can do this! I'm doing great! I haven't stalled yet - it's a miracle!" When I finally get back home and turn off the car, I feel a big sense of accomplishment and of relief. Eventually driving won't be so hard.

Maybe I'm not running out of time after all....

Tuesday, November 25

Piano Man

J is the new piano man.

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This is our new piano - a Roland digital. It's black. That's all I know.

Oh, that and J is a happy camper. Good enough for me.

Monday, November 24

Jo-Ninja!

I joke with my coworkers that I'm so stealthy that I'm actually a ninja. We've had many conversations that end with people rolling around on the floor - apparently the idea of me being a ninja is hilarious. J just might sometimes call me a "clomper-saurus" among other, non-ninja names.

So anyways, this comes up at least once a week, me being all ninja-esque. So much so that one day this week, a coworker of mine came into my office with a huge gron on her face. She tells me to close my eyes and put out my hand. I'm a little worried, but also expecting chocolate.

I open my eyes and see this:

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It's a JoNinja. It's so cute.

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But as you can see from the tag that came with my little JoNinja, you're supposed to attach it and its little bell to your enemies so they can't sneak up on you. I've attached it to my purse which completely defeats the purpose. Ah well, it's really cute.

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And I have a genius plan for my little joninja - I'm going to take it on our future trips and take pictures of it around the world, a la gnome from the travel commercials. You know the ones. Little JoNinja, you are giong to be a world traveller!

Friday, November 21

Blogging from the couch

It's Friday night. The work week is done and I'm lying on the couch with my sleeping husband and purring cat, watching tv and catching up on the internets. Heaven. It was a long week.

My big news from this week is that I started a project at work. When I spoke with my boss last week, I was told that I would abandon my current work and take on this project. Because of this and that, I took on the project but wasn't able to get rid of my workload. Like I said, it was a long week.

And my eye is twitching.

I've got it in my head that my eye twitch may not be due to stress but due to eye strain. That's why I got my glasses so I decided to actually wear them. I've been bad about wearing them unless I feel pain, like when I watch movies at home. So I was good and wore them this week. I had a ton of people comment.. I obviously don't wear them often.

So after work today, J and I stopped at the new pho place between work and home. It was nice. Then we went to the piano store and bought a piano. No kidding. It's being delivered Tuesday so I will have pictures and the whole story then.

Now I'm catching up on tv and couch-lying. It's going to be a good night.

Tuesday, November 18

It's short

I knew I wanted to cut my hair. I didn't know how short. I went to my regular girl, told her I wasn't sure. She combs it out, pulls it and puts the scissors against my hair. "How about here?" she asks. "Sure" I said. Turns out, that was really high up because I have super short hair now.

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I've had it shorter and I will get used to it. We'll just have to see how it goes tomorrow morning when I'm left to my own devices for making it look good. No more throwing it back in a pony tail.

Saturday, November 15

Yaris!

We've been thinking for a while about trading in the Mazda 3 for something smaller, more fuel efficient. We test-drove a whole bunch of cars a couple of months ago and decided on the Yaris. Because it's near the end of the year, we thought it was a good time to buy. We went in a couple of weeks ago to see if we could get a 2008. The saleswoman wouldn't even check for one. The next week, J called another dealership and spoke with the manager. This guy was awesome; he found us a car, got it shipped to town, and gave us good service the whole time. We got a decent value for the 3 on the trade in and walked away with a brand new car.

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It's a 2008 Toyota Yaris 5-door hatchback RS. It's a cute little black thing, apparently more peppy than J was expecting.

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I can't comment myself because I haven't driven it. It's a manual transmission - I've driven stick before but not often enough to feel comfortable. I'm confident that I will learn quickly but I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for myself for losing a bit of my freedom when we handed over the keys to the 3.

Here we are, all happy in our new wheels:

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Wednesday, November 5

Thank you

A big thank you to our family and friends who have been SO supportive this past week. Like they say, when it rains it pours and we definitely have had a rough go.

Our little family is recovering. Sandy is almost her usual self. She is a little clingy and a little loud, but she is coping. She's even spending more time with J than she did before. I think she can tell he needs the lovin just as much as I do.

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Life goes on and that means dealing with things like a broken dishwasher. Our dishwasher, which we bought when we got the house less than two years ago, is already broken. A guy came last week but the replacement motor he brought wasn't the right one and so he left with the promise that he'll order the correct motor and will be back. We haven't heard from him yet. So two people that hate cleaning in general and dishes specifically have been doing dishes only when absolutely necessary. Where are the dish fairies?

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Hallowe'en also came and went. This is what I think about that:

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But ducks make me happy. We went with S&L and A to Mud Lake and saw plenty of ducks. It was a nice day and I'm glad we got out.

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Poor S (of A&S) couldn't join us so we went over after our walk and hung out and eventually pigged out on chinese food.

Whole set - Mud Lake.

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And the big news round here is that we bought a new car. We should have it next week so stay tuned....

Saturday, November 1

Wednesday

Wednesday was one of the worst days of my life. It started out like any regular work day; J and I got out of bed, showered, and were getting ready when we heard a bang from downstairs. With cats, this isn't abnormal. Our dishwasher stopped working so the sink was full of dishes. It sounded like Rolo fell into the sink. J went down to check it out.

Rolo was in the sink, on top of the dishes, not moving. J screamed Rolo's name and when he did it a second time I knew something was wrong. J was panicking and I was yelling at the voicemails of multiple vets that were greeting my desperate calls. We packed up our lifeless cat into a carrier and hopped in the car.

Of course it had to be the day after the first snowstorm of the year and the drive to the vet took way too long. We were both in shock but determined to make it to the vet. J did an awesome job of keeping the car on the road and I did a good job at yelling at all the innocent people driving to work like they do every morning.

We finally got to the vet and answered all the same questions they asked when I finally got a live person on the phone on the drive over. They showed us to an exam room, but only a minute later ushered us into another room with couches. That's when I lost it. That's when it became real.

The vet came in, delivered the bad news. Rolo had died, most likely from a heart attack. Would we like to see him? I surprised myself by saying I would. They brought him in and we held him and consoled each other for I don't know how long, cursing the "couch room" the whole time.

Again, J stepped up and paid the vet and somehow got us home safely. We spent the day alternating beween mind-numbing quiet and all-out sobbing. I have never felt as broken and I have never seen such pain in J's eyes. It was absolutely awful.

Thanks to our wonderful friends who came by with food (I would not have eaten had it not been for you) and who came to spend some time with us. We needed your support and you definitely delievered.

It's going to take a while before we're back to normal. For now, we don't want to talk about it. We don't want to answer questions. Mostly, we want our lives to be as normal as possible. We will tell you if there's anything you can do.

Rolo was our little brown buddy. He was incredibly soft and cuddly, he loved water and had a touch of OCD. Tuesday night, he ran around with Sandy being all crazy and he slept with us, and Wednesday morning, he licked the water after my shower and while I brushed my teeth and purred with J after his shower. He was a happy little cat right to the end. My heart is broken.

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