As of today, most entries will be Friends Only. If you are already on my Friend's List, you will continue to get my entries.

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I'm thinking today of work and I'm making plans to definitely go into work to get ready this week provided that the weather isn't too hot. =) So I've been thinking of students that I've taught over the years. By now, when I think about it I've taught over 250 children! Wow. That's amazing to me. It could actually be more but that is just a rough estimate. Over the years, I've definitely had some interesting stories and some interesting children. I think I'll just tell you about a few.

First of all, there is the child who was a guest on the Maury Povich show. Yes, indeedy! She told us the week before that she was going to be taking a plane to New York to go to the Morio show, but neither myself nor my EA could quite put that together. Then we found out through another person that the child was going to be on the Maury show. She was going to be the child of the upcoming paternity test. I used to think that these shows must really be fakery, but after knowing someone who was actually on the show, I know that they are real people. I *did* see the episode by the way. The mother was completely a loser on the show. The Daddy WAS the Daddy after all. The poor child to be exploited like that by her own mother. Made me sad because she was the sweetest thing on the planet.

Another child in my class many many years ago, had her mother stabbed to death in front of her. That broke my heart. Her mother was a druggie but the child herself was a complete sweetheart and truly was one of the most pleasant and polite children I've ever taught. She is now bounced around living with Grandmother and Aunt and I hope that she will get her life together after that traumatic event.

I had a child whose Grandmother was charged and convicted of murder. It wouldn't have been so weird, if I hadn't know the Grandmother because the she would often pick up the little girl after school. The Grandmother was definitely 'rough around the edges' - a bit of a biker Grandma (which in itself is not a bad thing, but you could sort of tell that she probably hung out with a rougher group of friends) and not always the most polite person.

I had another child whose Mother we were pretty sure was an escort. It was never confirmed but the staff was pretty convinced. She certainly dressed the part and had money that seemed to be beyond her means. She was always sending the kids to school in a taxi which I thought to be odd.

These stories always remind me that despite how screwed up their home lives are sometimes, children have a resiliency that amazes me. They can come from the most odd of homes, and still end up being polite and pleasant children.

But then again, I've also had a few who have come from screwed up homes and that, already at the age of 5, seemed to be destined for a bad life ahead of them. Like the child I had who threatened to go into his backpack and get a knife to slit the throat of another student. Normally, something like that would be just talk, but this child, well, I wouldn't have doubted that he'd actually carried the plan out. Then there was the other one who was the best friend of that child I just mentioned who was, somewhat similiar in behaviour. His favourite words were "Oh For Christ's sake!". I have a feeling that I will see these children in the paper (and not for good things) in the years to come.

LLL

Well, I managed to finish about 3/4 of the sodding job by the time hubby came home. He was quite impressed actually. I did very well laying down the sod so that the seams did not show.  When hubby came home, he helped me with the final 1/4 that was left although he did such a quick job of it, I was actually better off to have done it myself. I thought he'd be very picky about the seams, but he just rolled it, padded it down with his feet and that was it.  There I am on the other hand, carefully on my hands and knees aligning the seams.  The yard looks great and I'm very, very pleased. Turns out he got 20 "rolls" (don't know what the proper term is - carpet?) of sod and got it dirt cheap for $30.  It was slightly brown-green grass but once we started to soak it heavily with the sprinklers, you could actually see the colour start to come back.  I'm thrilled with the look.  As long as all the sod "takes", we'll be good.  I am really sore though. I feel like an old lady =) It was alot of work weeding the garden and then laying down the sod. Sod can be heavy stuff. Not to mention of course, that it was warm and sunny and no shade where I was working.

I called my Mom today.  I called to wish her a "happy heartattackiversary" =) It was a year ago that she had a massive heart attack after housesitting for us.  Of course, heart attacks are not good things, but the great thing is that the clotbuster did its job and she is still around. My mother and I have always been very close and I just couldn't imagine had things not worked out with the clotbuster that night. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Well, it's time to settle down for the evening. Have a good one.

LLL

I remember an episode of the Facts of Life where Blair said that she "doesn't sweat, rather, she *glistens*". Well, I suppose after that I have to say that I don't glisten. I sweat. I sweat like a pig. Ugh! It's only around 84 out there which is a break from the 90 degree temps lately, but the sun is out there strong and when you are working...well, I'm sweatin'.

The sod arrived at around 3:30 and I've managed to put about half of it down. I've come to a bit of a crossroads because halfway in the garden there's a bush I started to take down, but I'd been meaning to ask hubby to just take his chain saw and cut it, because it was much too thick branched to dig out. Well now, do I stop at this bush? Do I sod around it and hope hubby gets to cut it down later? Or do I sod around it, and hope it grows back so I just don't have this ugly stump sitting there forever? Ugh. I'm not quite sure what to do. He'll probably come home and say, "Geez, why didn't you ask me to cut down the damn bush before today?". I'll of course say "You only told me about the sod coming last night!" and of course, it will end up being my fault that this bush is in the way of our sod fiesta. Ugh! ("Sod fiesta" now that's a term you don't hear every day :)

To make matters worse, the last of my flip flops has well, flopped and now I don't have any flip flops to wear so I'm barefoot in that nasty mud half laying down sod and watering it at the same time. I feel absolutely grungola =(

Ugh.

And it's friggin hot and I cannot stand this anymore. I *hate* gardening with a passion. Someone come to my house and put down some cement!

Blah.

LLL

We bought some grass. Now before that mind gets in the gutter, let me tell you that it is the kind that grows to make a lawn. Yes, we're having some sod delivered today. That in itself is definitely not earth shattering news, but it is going to mean that within the next ten minutes I have a ton of work to do :( Blah.

The right side of our back yard consists of huge flowerbeds. Well really, it's sort of more like dirt with weeds. Seriously, I suppose that at one time the previous owner put lots of flower in there, but since we've lived here (this is our third summer) the weeds have far outnumbered the flowers. Since we've moved, we've also talked about putting sod down in that area so that the ugly gardens would be gone and the dogs would have a little more room. Last night, while watching television hubby said "Oh yes, I ordered some sod and it will arrive tomorrow". Apparently, there is some guy that he knows from work that does landscaping and he was in at his work yesterday so hubs placed an order. He doesn't seem to know when exactly the sod will actually be arriving other than sometime today.

So I guess that means that I'll be going out there and ripping out all those nasty weeds. Let me tell you, it will be alot of work and I'm not looking forward to it. (Hence, the procrastination of going on here to journal right now).

I'm also not sure how much sod he's ordered - if it will be enough to cover the whole area or if I should only weed a section of it. Oh well, I guess I might as well do the whole thing since he'll order any more that we need in a few days anyway.

Did I mention that I absolutely hate gardening? UGH!

Well it's time to venture to the kingdom of the weeds!

If I'm not back in an hour or two, send the search party :)

LLL

The weather has cooled off here for a day. Yay! No more blistering 90+ degree weather, at least not for today however short that is. It's so nice not to be sweating profusely for a change. I'm comfortable!  We still have no progress for our central air unit. We had another quote yesterday which was ridiculously expensive. I just wish hubby would just pick one so we could get the darn thing installed before Autumn is here!

Not much on the agenda today. I've been getting my computer files ready for the upcoming year. I'm starting to actually get excited about the challenges of the year ahead of me.  It will be a challenging year for sure but I'm sure I'll manage to survive as I always do. I just know that the month of September will leave my head spinning.  I want to get organized this year. I did really well up until January with my organization (preparing things ahead of time rather than planning and preparing at the last minute) but once basketball season came, I was thrown for a loop. I've got to really get ahead of myself in the first few months to make that transition easier this year. 

I've been playing with my LUSH products. Oh my, I never would have thought that I like body butter but I splurged and bought one, and I just love the smell of Soft Touch on my skin. Oh my goodness is it lovely!  I'll be taking that to work for sure and using it to refresh my skin throughout the day. Yum. And the deodorant, Aromaco is absolutely to die for. It's embarrassing, but I have this urge to just smell my pit area! ha! I just love the fragrance. Hubby looks at me like I've grown a third eyeball or something which I don't blame him for.  I'm definitely going to be a LUSH addict for sure. Goodbye Body Shop!  Lush baby!

No mail. It's really quite depressing.  I have all the time in the letter to write, all the inclination in the world, and not a damn piece of mail to be found...well other than bills, but they don't count now, do they? =)

Tomorrow will be a year ago that my Mom had her heart attack. Surprising how the year has flown. Thank god we have her another year! 

No big plans this weekend.  Hubby works every weekend now so we never do anything typically on the weekend except maybe go out to dinner.  We do have an invitation to my inlaws for dinner on Sunday which I always look forward to.  Remember the death in the family, well we are having the widower and other cousins over for dinner too - a full house. It should be fun..and being that there will be extended family there, that means that my MIL will have one of her killer desserts. Yum! We're having my parents over on Monday for a barbecue as well.  Should be good. 

All quiet on the western front here,

Have a happy Friday (I keep thinking today is Saturday!),

LLL

 

 

 

Tales of a Lush Virgin

Today I finally went into my first Lush store! I was very excited about the experience.

My first impressions: boy could you smell the store from far away. There is no mistaking a lush I suppose as the smell wafted down the mall aisle! I was kind of surprised at how small the store was as I'd expected something much larger. Before I had arrived, I made a list from the website of things to check out, but upon arrival, I was somewhat overwhelmed. All I can say is thank god I did make a list. I smelled things here and there, changed my mind a few times upon smelling things in real life. The person at the store was quite helpful explaining things to me.

This is what I ended up buying:

The Soft Touch Body Butter

Demon in the Dark Soap (I was a little taken aback at the prices of soap as I didn't realize that they were weighed - I picked this scent because I wanted something with some peppermint in it and they didn't have any Freeze which I sooo much wanted to get).

Aromaco Deodorant

Creamy Candy Bath Melt

Creamy Candy Bath

Sex Bomb

Karma Bath Bomb

Karma Bubble Bar

I was a little disappointed that she didn't instantly give me free samples upon checking out, but she did after I asked for them. I have a free sample of Fresh Pharmacy Face Soap and Extra Virgin Olive Soap. I look forward to using them and trying new things!

I haven't update as it has been too hot and I've mostly resigned myself to living in the basement during these 90 degree temperatures. Today was the funeral for hubby's dad's cousin's wife (what a mouthful). Getting ready today was a job in itself. I managed to barely get dressed, do my hair and makeup upstairs. It was like a sauna up there and poor hubby and I were sweating buckets the whole time. Hubby of course checks his clothes at the last minute and realizes that his shirt is all full of dog hair. (the joy of having a golden retriever and a border collie). So I went downstairs to get a lint brush and realized that I'm all out and that I know that there is one of course sitting in my cupboard in my classroom. Ugh. So I grabbed the packing tape and was using piece after piece to remove the dog hair while at the same time I was working up a sweat and actually had sweat dripping onto his dress shirt. Gross, I know but it was *that* hot and I don't consider myself to be someone who sweats alot. =( It was quite comical but I managed to get him dog hair free and we went on to the funeral home.

Usually we'd just go right to the church for the mass, but since hubby was going to be a pallbearer, we had to go for prayers at 9 am. Then we had a procession to the church which was practically across town. I hate the procession - I think it is an old, archaic tradition that needs to be abolished in this day and age before someone gets killed. We got cut off once on our way to the church. After the church, it was off to the cemetary.

I had a new experience with that. The lady that passed away was going to be put into a crypt. I'd never been in the crypt building before. To me, it's sort of like a big filing cabinet full of bodies. Gross yet slightly amusing in a way to think of. They slid the coffin into the whole, put up a barrier to isolate her coffin since her husband of course, will eventually join her. Then they put the marble plaque on top after closing it off. Slightly fascinating and no one on hubby's side (well immediate family) had ever seen the process before. My grandmother in September was cremated and that was our family's first experience with that too. Here by far, it is still extremely common for straight old burial. How about where you live?

Then we went off for the meal which was really well done.

I came home and napped. How exciting eh? Last night, I didn't manage to get much sleep because of the heat and because of the snoring. (Grrrr).

I've been having alot of fun with Shareaza the past while. It's a program to download music. I'm having a blast downloading music from my youth. =) And I love Gwen Stefani and I love Hollaback girl even if I don't quite know what it means.

I'm soooo excited. Tomorrow hubby is taking me to LUSH. I've been drooling over LUSH for months and have been very excited to get a store in our city. So tomorrow he said if I go with him to his doctor's appointment, he'll take me to LUSH afterwards. Yay! I'm sooo (pathetically) excited.

On a sad note, I'm twiddling thumbs here wanting a letter to write but I'm totally caught up. I took on a few new penpals and am wondering where their responses are. I'd better get some mail by the end of the week or I'll go crazy! :)

Just about to go for a p.m. swim. It's almost 11 pm here and I can't wait =) Hubby has had the heater on for a while and it should be like a bathtub.

LLL

August. I can't believe it's August already. The month of July is always a carefree month for a teacher but the month of August, signals to most of us that pretty soon it will be time to get back into the classroom. Not that I'm complaining here or anything about my vacation off, but August brings a certain sense that there is so much to do and pretty soon there will be so little time to do it in.  I'm definitely going to go back to my classroom as soon as we have a day that is under 85 degrees here. Typically the air in the school is turned off during the summer, so I expect my classroom to be scorching if I go back on a day like today when it is very hot.

I have alot to do before September. The last week or so of August I have two workshops to go to which I'm looking forward to - one on Autism since I'm having another Autistic student in my class next year. The other one is about setting up a classroom as a community so that all members will show respect towards one another. Should be fun.  Until then I'd like to get back and prepare at least a month worth of lesson plans and materials to make it a little easier for the first month of transitioning.  I would still also like to move my room around if I get up the energy and creativity to do that. 

Today was a Civic Holiday so we didn't do much. We lounged around the pool, played on our computers and just hung around the house. Hubby made one of those frozen pizzas for dinner and I don't honestly know how he does it.  He had pizza dripping into the pots and pans drawer at the bottom of the stove so now in addition to cleaning the dishes I have to clean the whole drawer! It would have been easier if I'd just cooked it myself!  =)

We have our funeral showing tomorrow for hubby's Dad's cousin's wife (isn't that a mouthful) and hubby wants to go to both showings, afternoon and evening since they don't have much family.  Then Wednesday will be the funeral mass and burial.  Hubby was asked to be a pallbearer. 

I have no immediate plans for the next few days since it is expected to be in the nineties this week but I do hope eventually to drag someone (either Hubby or SIL) down to the new Lush store that has opened at our mall. Have you heard of Lush? It's sort of like the Body Shop but personally I think they have cooler products.  I have drooled over their website and newsletter for months and have wanted to order but the $9 shipping charge really turned me off. Then once I found out that they were opening a store here, I decided to wait. I already have browsed their site at lush.com and have made myself a list of products that I want to buy. I absolutely adore bath product especially during the winter when a bath is a luxury and a way to indulge and keep warm especially when you can jump out of the bath, and then go and sit by a fire.  Indulging with bath products is the only way I know how to indulge myself and not put on five pounds =) Anyway, I do hope to grab someone and drag them down to the store with me within the week. 

Well, I have to go now since the two hour finale of Hell's Kitchen is on and I absolutely love that show. The only downer of course being that after tonight, it is over. 

LLL

I went into my Yahoo email box and found this email waiting for me from this girl, let's call her Diana:

Diana: are you male or female?

So I responded: I don't know you so why are you asking?

The next response came:

Diana: i just thought u would like a penpals

My response: seems kind of strange that you wouldnt know if i was male or female before actually writing!

Another email came.

Diana: i do not write to men... thats why i ask u if u are a male or female

Again, I responded: I'm sure I put I'm female in all my ads since I too write to only females.

More email comes. This time it said:

Diana: would u like to snail mail or email

And so, I responded: Sorry I do not agree to write to penpals that I know nothing about.

I *hate* it when penpals send you one line and expect you to commit to them forever. C'mon now, at least take some time and tell me about you. The kicker, my friends was her response which made me feel as if she thinks that I'm the one whose bothering HER.

Diana: ok bye then... do not email me anymore

The bye then was sufficient. I'm a little pissed off at the second comment. Like I'm somehow invading HER space, being a nuisance to HER. Maybe I'm interpreting it incorrectly but that really really bugged me.

UGH.

LLL

( So we went to Tony Romas last night... )

Afterwards Tony Romas, we went back to Maria's house and walked around the neighbourhood which was quite lovely as there was a lovely breeze. We passed through some great streets where the houses were unique and we'd make comments on the gardening and the homes as we went along. We stopped for ice cream and slushies on the way too at the little neighbourhood ice cream place and then went back home to chat and watch t.v.

One of the cousins had gone on a vacation to Greece and showed us photos in her album. I'm not sure about you, but I love to look at vacation photos.  I don't necessarily want to go to the country nor do I necessarily want to know about the country, but I love to visualize the country and look over all its features.  But it doesn't mean that I necessarily want to hear the history of this place or that place. I just like the pretty photos =) But the cousin that went told us history and went on and on about everything and I swear it took an hour to get through the photo album!  I'd rather someone just give me the photo album, let me look at my will and I'll ask questions if I'm interested.  It was a long process going through that photo album and I loved seeing the pictures but I don't necessarily want to know EVERYTHING.  I don't know, it just seemed to suck the fun out the pictures.  As you can tell, I wasn't a history major...but then again, my sister-in-law Maria who was a history major said afterward that she was equally bored so who knows? hee!

My husband's father is going to be 78 this year. Of course, being so old, he is practically the only one left on his side of his family.  The only remaining alive relatives on my husband's father's side are two men cousins who are close to 80 themselves. My husband has lots of relatives on his mother's side so that's typically where we spend our holidays but again, his dad's side is virtually wiped out.  These two cousins are married and between them they only have one child, a daughter who herself is probably in her forties.  Well, the cousin's wife passed away yesterday so this week we will be having to go to the showings and funeral.  Since these cousins lived in Scotland for half their lives, I'm sure there won't be many people who will attend the funeral...but then again I could be wrong.  Anyway, the cousin's wife was a tiny little thing. She'd had a tough time in the last few years having what was either Alzheimer's or just senility where her memory was getting weaker and weaker.  She was a tiny little thing to begin with and was growing ever so more frail. One time it struck the family that our golden retriever weighed more than she did. From what I heard the wife weighed something like 85 lbs soaking wet! Anyway, in the last week she'd had what they thought was a heart attack and basically told the husband that she would probably pass anytime soon.  This couple never had any children.

It always makes me wonder how upsetting it must be to a spouse when the other passes away especially after being married for 40 or 50 years.  It must be so devastating to all of a sudden be alone when you've been partnered for decades and decades. He's such a nice man, the poor thing.  Luckily, in the last couple of years, he'd bought a house just down the street from his brother so that they would be physically close.  At funerals, I just never know what to say. Everything just seems so banal, so pointless, all the "Sorry for your loss" type remarks. 

LLL

I absolutely *hate* cleaning. Hubby would ignore the mess rather than actually clean. He's far worse than I am and my expectations are much higher, so most of the time, if I want the house cleaned I have to do it myself. I did some tasks that need to be done like cleaning our storage closet that comes off of our walk in clothes closet. This area has luggage and boxes and various things that haven't been sorted out in quite some time. After that I cleaned out my make up and jewelery trays in the bathroom upstairs.

The person that put in our bathroom was quite smart. They put in these wonderful two-level layered trays into the pull-out drawers. They hold various pieces of makeup and jewellery. Wonderful but after a while they get full of makeup residue and are nasty to clean up. I vacuumed all the wonderful dust bunnies upstairs too, threw in a load of wash and am now about to concentrate on cleaning up the main floor.

I'm not worried about the basement as last week when we were "entombed" in the basement because of the heat, I had nothing better to do than straighten up down there :) I still want one of these though:

LLL =)

The coolest thing about the internet is definitely how handy it is for quick information at a glance. Being the food envy person that I am, I love to look up menus before actually going to the restaurant. It always takes me a long time to figure out what I want to order, so if I sort of have an idea beforehand, I'm much better prepared to order.

So much for spontaneity eh? =)

Anyway, in anticipation of going to Tony Romas tonight with the gals, I looked up their online menu.

NOTHING really appeals to me. Ugh.

Usually when I order I like chicken with vegetables (mushrooms/asparagus etc) but their menu totally doesn't do anything for me.

Ugh.

LLL

Good Morning All! 

Cup of coffee in hand, I'm ready to face the world!  Actually to face the housework. I'm definitely going to do some tidying up today. All of a sudden, it has hit me that before I know it, I will be heading back to work and all that free time to do cleaning I'd intended to do will be history.  I'll at least shoot for some tidying up and vacuuming today. 

I notice today upon waking up that the heat is starting to come back. Not that it is terribly hot, but rather than the temps are starting to go up. It'll be basement dwelling time again before I know it! I hope that hubs makes up his mind what central air unit he wants to get so that we can move on and get it installed before the temperatures go up again.

Have you heard of the case of the newlywed man who is missing from the cruise ship? I ask this because before watching Nancy Grace last night, I hadn't heard of it at all. I wonder if there's not much media attention to it just here or everywhere?  He's a good looking, white man so it should be headline news like Natalee Holloway, shouldn't it?

Just as I would with any woman who was missing, I automatically cast a shadow of doubt over the new wife.  You just never know. Apparently the day after he went missing, she went back home to Connecticut which seems a little suspicious to me. But then again, look what happened with that dolt Jennifer Willibanks!  Anyway, they found bloody handprints on the ships side so it seems as if he's dead.   To read more, go here:  Missing Man

Have a Happy Saturday,

LLL

The problem is that when you kick ass in Lingo, people leave you midway through the game.

Ugh.

I just beat someone 9000 to 3000 and at least they had the resolve to finish the game with me! Most leave! Ugh! I *hate* that.

LLL

My next door neighbours ventured into the land of dog parenthood this summer. They are a young couple in the same profession as myself and having no kids, they bought a cute little boxer. I'm not one for boxers generally myself, but any dog is a good dog in my opinion =) Hee! Let me just say that they are very, very nice people next door and I have nothing against them but their little doggy is driving me a bit nuts with its yap, yap, and yap!

From the onset, it is clear that they have no idea what they are doing. First of all, they mentioned where they got the dog from. They got the dog from a (let's use this term loosely here) "breeder" in the newspaper. Now, I'm very cautious of this because dogs are often so over bred by hobby breeders that you can get a very scary temperament from not doing research. They also mentioned the street that they bought the dog on, and let's just say that the street is know for lovely things like prostitution, drugs and the like. A very scary neighbourhood. We had a relative who lived in that area for about a week until he heard gunshots! Yikes.

Now, I can constantly hear the woman chastising the dog with her constant barrage of "NO! NO! NO!" which obviously must not work very often because she's constantly yelling it in her happy puppy voice. I just hope that they can figure out what they are doing so that they have their puppy turn into a well behaved dog.

Right now, the dog is constantly yapping. I don't know if they put it in another room sometimes, but even when they are home, the dog is constantly yap, yap, yap. It is driving me crazy. My dogs are very well behaved and rarely bark (the 80 year old lady next door is amazed at how quiet they are and for months thought that we only had one dog instead of two!). But this constant yap, yap, means that once in a while, my dogs will start barking now and I have to chastise them. Ugh. Plus, while doing yard work today, the yapping was really starting to get on my nerves. =( I would never say anything to them or complain to the city or anything like that. I'm a NICE neighbour. I'll just vent on here :)

Oh well. Hopefully, this too shall pass.
LLL

The teachers at my board, had been working the past two years without a contract.  Well, at the end of the year, we finally settled the contracts and are now up to date and actually working with a contract.  That meant, that today I was going to get some retroactive pay for a pay raise that I got in September 2004.  Well, talk about disappointing! Before taxes it was $1,205 and after taxes, it turns out to be around $650.  About half! That was such a bummer as I thought we'd at least get a grand. Blah.

Today I don't have much on the agenda. We were paying the bills yesterday and realized that hubs accidently had over paid on my Visa so I had an actual credit of $90 on my Visa. Whooopee!  That meant of course, I had to spend it so last night I went to amazon.ca and I ordered some books. 

These are the books that I ordered:

Corpse: Nature, Forensics, and the Struggle to Pinpoint Time of Death
by Jessica Snyder Sachs (Author)

Joyful Learning in Kindergarten
by Don Holdaway (Foreword), Bobbi Fisher (Author)

For Reading Out Loud: Planning and Practice
by Bobbi Fisher (Author), Emily Fisher Medvic (Author)

The first one is for my own personal love of reading as I've read good things about it  and the last two are to (hopefully) give me some inspiration for the upcoming year for work. I am really dreading going back.  I know that it will be a very tough year ahead of me and so I'm needing some inspiration.  I also ordered a book that hubby wanted:

Top 100 Unusual Things to See in Ontario
by Ron Brown (Author)

Not much on the agenda today. No letters to answer :(  I'm going to try and do some cleaning and general tidying up around here.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to be having a girls night out =) Still working out the plans, as it could be postponed a day or two depending on everyone's plans. There will be about 6 of us. Usually we go out for dinner and back to my SIL's and watch bad television and talk. Should be fun! We are thinking of trying Tony Romas. I haven't been there yet. 

Anyway, I suppose I should go and do something productive,

LLL

 

 

A few quirks about me:

I am not a comparison shopper. Don't get me wrong - I love shopping for myself especially when it comes to the dollar store, book stores or Education stores, but when it comes to being a good consumer and researching a product before you buy, I totally suck. As you remember, we are currently in the market for a new Central Air unit thanks to my lovely in-laws. So we have been online and doing some research before buying. We've also had a few companies come out and give us quotes and pamphlets. This has left the two of us scratching our heads and researching on the internet. When you are going to spend thousands of dollars (and someone else's dollars at that!), you want to make sure that you get the best bang for your buck. I just hope we can figure it all out before summer actually ends. We really won't need an air conditioner come winter ;)

It reminds me of when we were planning our wedding. I *hated* going around to all the photographers, places, shops and checking out all the different options before buying. I am the one who is ready to take the first decent offer rather than have to make all kinds of trips to compare value.

Speaking of shopping, I also hate shopping for Christmas and Birthday gifts most of the time. I love buying for myself of course, but when I have to buy someone a gift, I have very high, unrealistic expectations. I always have the notion that I have to find "the perfect gift" and something unique which in today's world is a litte hard to come by.

Did I also mention that I have food envy? Yes, I'm known for this at work and in my private life. Whenever I go to a restaurant with friends, I *have* to know what everyone is ordering a head of time. What usually happens is that I order something, and then someone sitting next to me has something even more appetizing and I think to myself "Gee, I should have ordered what THEY ordered. Their meal looks sooo much better than mine". So I have to know what everyone is ordering because I might decide to change my mind! I'm crazy that way. Everyone else's meal always looks so much better than mine. The same goes for eating lunch at work, I'm always asking people "What's that?" because people bring in the most interesting lunches at work like leftovers from a restaurant and I'm there with my boring sandwich.

What weird quirk do YOU have?

LLL