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Oh Yeah, My Blog

First off, I would like to thank all of you for your concern.  I’ve gotten several very sweet notes in the last bit inquiring if I was all right.  I assure you, that I am doing fine; I’ve just been a bit of a flake lately.  That’s why I think it was such a bad idea for me to start up a blog here in the first place.  You’ll remember that in my very first post I said that something like this would happen.  I’m just not savvy enough to keep things going around here when life gets hectic.  Sorry.  Never fear though, I’m not dead so while I appreciate you guys worrying, it really wasn’t necessary.  Thanks =)

Summer has been OK so far.  Hot weather, but that is to be expected.  I’ve had a bit of a relapse with my achilles, but I’ve so far managed to put off a trip to the doctor. I’ve got some big rides in a couple months, so I’m trying to put it off until then. I know that’s pretty stupid, but I never claimed to be that bright. =)

Speaking of bright, one of my dear friends has a pretty big charity ride coming up.  It’s something crazy like 150 miles to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Sounds like a lot of fun, and while I cant go ride with him, I can send along a donation to help him out.  If any of you would like to do the same, the website is: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/aaron_mccann The ride is just a few weeks away, and I know he’s getting excited.

Aaron works for an Arkansas web design firm, so I may use this in trade for a new template!  It’d be super cool to have a fancy custom made site just for me.  I may call him and start the ribbing to get it going.  LOL!

My garden is doing pretty good.  I’d put up some pictures for you guys, but my digital camera got dunked a couple weeks ago.  Come to find out, they don’t work so well after being submerged.  Meh.  Maybe I could get one of those cool new ones that are really thin and small.  I think that would be cool so that I could carry it more places with me.  Or it sounds good anyway; I’d probably neglect to take pictures too! Not that I’m lazy or anything.

greetz

Hey readers, how’s it goin tonight?  I’m sitting in the middle of a damn rainstorm and beginning to tire of it.
My whiplash is doing way better than last time, to the point that I’m no longer depending on those drugs to keep me from whining.  I still whine some, but that’s totally unrelated to the neck pain. =) As I said, we’re in the middle of a monsoon right now.  It’s rained for the last 5 or 6 days, and I really think I’m about to go crazy if it doesn’t stop soon.  It really has been that bad. My poor plants are drowning, and even though I’ve felt better (no Achilles pain at all) I’ve been unable to get out on my bike.  Arrgh!!  I’ve been walking a little with some friends and the dogs, but not enough to help me maintain any sort of fitness.  No, I’ve been trapped inside on the couch watchin bad television and on the net reading all the gossip blogs for the latest on Carrie Prejean, Rihanna, and the like.  Nothing like having others flaws pointed out to make ourselves feel better huh?  I soo love the gossip.

So I’ve got a birthday coming up too.  Tomorrow is the big day.  I’m not even really that excited, but the cards have started showing up early.  My friend AM sent me the best e-card from My Fun Cards that I ABSOLUTELY loved (hint,hint).  Nothing like a free cheesy ecard to brighten a girls day.  Plans aren’t all done yet, but I imagine there will be plenty of margaritas to go around.  I’d like to hit up the local indian hot spot for some grub before the drinking starts though. =)  It looks like Thursday at the office might be a little painful.  Going out for some clubbing would be nice too; I guess it will just depend on everyones schedule.

I visited with my paternal grandfolks a bit on Saturday.  I hadn’t seen them in a bit, so it was nice to hang out.  My grandpa will be celebrating his 94th birthday in June, so we’re planning a weeklong party for them.  I’ve got family in lots of states, so this will make it easier for everyone to come see them for a bit.  The little town they live in (population of about 260) has a really nice hunting lodge that we’ve reserved for the entire week.  It’s within walking distance to their house, so everyone will be able to stay a night or 3 without cramping them.  I’m really looking forward about it as some of the aunts/uncles I haven’t seen in quite a while.

While I was there, I gave them a bit of help getting ready for the upcoming digital TV conversion.  I’d ordered their new antenna and digital TV converter boxes, but hadn’t had time to get down and install them.  Fortunately, their little town saw a bit of a pause in all the rain we’ve been getting.  It ended up being just long enough for me and dad to get the antenna put up and roughly aimed.  They’re a little old skool, so they were’t real crazy about our satellite idea.  It’s all gravy though.  I can really see their side.  Their TV habit consists of the morning news show, the local lunch news program, a little basketball, wheel of fortune, and the evening news.  That’s one of the things that wowed me growing up.  They watched so little TV, but there was always something going on.  I was always worried about being bored during the summer, but there was always something to do.  Working in the garden, riding our bikes (they both rode into their early 80s), just going for walks, going fishing and more.  It was always a full couple weeks.  I really miss the slower pace sometimes.

so that’s the latest update.  Not nearly as rambling as some of the last ones huh?  I’m trying to post more and shorter so it doesn’t take up all ya’lls reading time. =) C ya Amy.

friday, friday, friday

Greetings guys, this will be short as I’m just going to pop in for a quick post.  This will be good for most of you as I’m sure the rambling posts get old after a while.  I can’t help it really, I’m just a blabbermouth.  Hopefully, you all still love me.  See, I’m already starting to get wordy and I haven’t really even started the post yet.

My neck is doing better.  I’ve spent most of the week downing Tylenol 3’s and Flexeril to keep the pain in check.  As I said, it is doing better, but still not completely good.  It still bugs me pretty bad after a nights sleep and after I spend a long day staring at my computer screen all day at the nine to five.  I’ve also been made fun of a few times for snoozing at my desk at lunch.  What can I really say though, Tylenol 3 makes me groggy.

It’s been raining for like 3 days straight now.  UGGHH!  It’s played hell on my poor little garden.  One of my jalepeno plants bit the dust, but I’m pretty sure I have a couple seeds left so I can start another.  The others are doing pretty good, so the loss of 1 isn’t too big of a loss.  My lettuce plants are taking off.  I hope the trend contiues, as the harvest last year was pretty pathetic.  Thinking good thoughts.  I also started some more mint seeds in peat pellets this week.  They should hopefully be ready to move to the garden in a couple weeks.  That stuff hasn’t ever started great for me, so I always try to start them in a protected environment.

Short update on the SO front too.  They are still out of the house (CRAPPY), but we are still talking.  It’s going on like seven weeks now which is crappy, but I don’t know what else to do.  I’m not willing to call it quits even if it’s hard as hell to live like this.  There is just so much of me that is wrapped up in SO I can’t even picture my life any other way than with them.  It’s hard.  And it’s sad.  And it’s crappy.  And makes me want to cry.

So, that’s it for tonight.  Told all you haters that it would be a short entry tonight.  But, it may just be because of the Tylenol 3.  C ya soon, Amy.

Neat Catchy Title

Hey readers just thought I’d hop on for a quick end of weekend update before I head off to lala land.  I ended up not getting in a jog this weekend as there was too much other crap going on and, it was rainy.  No sense in trashing the trails if I don’t have too.  I got a little work done around the house instead; WAYY less fun, but I needed to do it.  Just some organizing really, and I’m almost ready to paint the mantle.  It’s about time huh?!  Other than that, my weekend has really been spent on the ‘net checking up on my favorite gossip posters.  Such fun to spy on other peoples lives.  Seeing some of the whacked out celebs just makes me feel better about my own overly dramatic life.  Like if Brittany shaves her head, it makes me forget about SO being gone for a little while.

Little Man is doing great.  He is completely back to his crazy self, just like nothing ever happened.  He’s actually trying to steal my chair as I’m typing this.  If the stupid camera wasn’t dead, I’d get a picture.  Maybe I’ll get to that this week.

My achilles has felt fine all week.  I’ve been stretching it a little bit more every night.  I hope that by the end of the month, I can start building up more time on the path as being off is making me crazy!  Not to mention, this is the prettiest time of year to get outside.

I also think I’ve got minor whiplash.  I was walking Kalli on Friday after work, and she saw a bird as we were coming down the driveway.  She made a break for it, and when she got to the end of the lead it threw me off balance and I took a fall onto the concrete.  As soon as I landed, I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and it’s been hurting since.  Feels just like I’ve been in a car wreck.  Doc called me in some meds, as I couldn’t get in to to see him on Friday.  I may run in tomorrow just so he can look at it.  Damn dogs…But I love her still.

Hey Tumblr!

I bet that you guys thought that I forgot about you huh?  Nah!  I’ve just been a bit out of touch.  The screen on my notebook bit the big one, so I’ve actually been Intarwebless.  Isn’t is just depressing?  I know you feel sorry for me.  It’s fine though as I have been snowed under with stuff to do the last week.  All minor stuff, but it’s been ALOT!  One of my coworkers has been out sick (NOT the swine flu), so I’ve been pulling double duty @ the office.  One of the animals had a vet appointment for a neuter too so I’ve been keeping an eye on him.  The weather has also been wonderful, so that meant a bit of time spent outside.  I got to do my first outside bike ride on Saturday and it was GREAT!  It was really a easy ride, but I’d forgotten how nice it was to do it outside.  I rode for about 1:30 at a pretty easy pace.  Being out of shape is tough, but I did ok.  My achilles was just fine, if just a little “tight” when I finished.  After a quick shower, I stretched a bit, and it loosened up nicely.

It’s been rainy so far this week, but hopefully, I’ll get out again Saturday or Sunday.  Hopefully, the weather will break by then.  I also got rid of my race entry that was coming up in a few weeks.  There is no way that I’d have been ready for a 50 mile bike race.  It’s a bummer, but Doc says “better your early season than all summer”.  He’s correct too.  I’d much rather miss now that to have my whole season wrecked.  Sometimes, patience just sucks.

So Little Man is doing fine after his surgery.  It took about 24 hours for the anistetic to wear off after his operation, but after that he was getting in to stuff just like normal.  I think that I’d have been curled up in pain if the same would have happened to me.  I will say that I’m glad we added him to the policy though as some of the local vets wanted $125 to neuter him.  That’s unbelieveable.  Our other critters came to us pre altered as they were all shelter adoptions.  We just found Little Man as a stray though, so we were stuck with the entire price ourselves.  We actually had some money put back for it (part of our emergency fund), but since we’d added him to the pet insurance plan, we only had to pay our deductible.  $30 in our case.  That’s WAY better than the original quote we got from our vet.  All I can say about it is thank goodness for cat medical insurance.  We saved quite a bit.  Like I said though, he’s doing great.  Really back to normal minus a small shaved spot.  Poor kitty!

My garden is starting to look nice and green.  I’ve gotten in all of my plants now.  I’ve got 1 poor tomato plant that isn’t going to make it though.  No bid deal though as I have some more seeds, so I can just start another one.  I also just found out that Mom has a friend that works at a local nursery, so I can have my pick of any of their older plants.  Come to find out, their suppliers make them toss many of the plants after so many weeks.  He said it had something to do with the roots I think.  I’m not plant genius, so I’m not even going to pretend I know.  I’ll just be dumb about it.  I just wish I would have known earlier as I could have easily changed my gardening schedule for some free plants.  I mean I really didn’t spend a bunch this year, but a penny saved is a penny earned.  I also helped Dad start a few plant for Mom over the weekend.  She’s been wanting to try one of those upside down tomato garden things for quite some time.  So, being the great husband he is, Dad surprised her with 4 of the planters, some good potting soil, and new watering wand, and some tomato plants.  It was really cool seeing how excited she was about them.  I’ll say that it seems like a really cool idea.  We got them all planted and hung up; it was really simple to do.  It took longer to decide where to hang them then it did to actually get the plants in.  She decided that she wanted them hung around the outside edge of the porch so that it will be easy to grab them.  That made sense to me.

I went over to MM & AMs house on Sunday for some more Wii playing.  I finally beat 200 for the high score of the night.  MM was upset.  He kicked my butt on boxing though (huge surprise there) so I guess it worked out.  I can also tell that AM has been honing her tennis skills.  That girl has got the serve hack DOWN!  It seems like if you hit the ball at a certain spot that it goes REALLY fast, and is almost impossible to hit back.  I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m working on it.  Win or lose though it is a bunch of fun just to get together and play.  We all work different schedules, so goof off/catch up time isn’t as often as it should be.  How much more fun can you really have for the cost of a bottle of cheap wine and some pizza?  There was one death for the night though.  MM & I were playing baseball, and he tried for some wierd pitch he read about on the net.  It was going good till he knocked off his glasses and they totally smashed on the floor.  OMG he was furious.  Not that I blame him though glasses are crazy expensive most of the time.  I don’t remember where he said they came from, it was just one of those 1 hour glasses places like America’s Best or something.  I used to get mine at LensCrafters.  Like mine, he said they were well over $200.  It sucks.  Luckily, he had an old pair in the drawer to get him by this week.  I finally talked him in to placing an order @ Zenni Optical, so he could get some cheap glasses.  I think they should show up in a couple more days.  He’s excited about it.

Well, I guess that’s all the chatter I need to inflict on you guys for today.  Now that Dell has fixed my laptop, I should be able to blog more than once a week. Thanks for reading, and I hope to talk again soon!  <3 Amy.

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

There’s not too much going on today.  I’m just spending a quiet day sitting around with the critters.  The weather is kinda dreary, so I think I’ll spend the day playing the Wii.  My friends MM & AM just got a Wii last week.  I learned how to take my Mii with me, so I took it over for the party.  We had a lot of fun playing tennis.  I suck SOO bad at bowling it isn’t even funny.  MM decided that he needed to make a wierd Mii, so he spent over 30 minutes trying to make one that looked like Hitler.  He said there is a website full of galleries of Miis that other people have created.  That sounds strange to me, but he didn’t remember the website.  He also said that some of them had tutorial so that you could make your own clone of the famous Mii.  He said it even had Morpheus from The Matrix (one of the best movies EVAR), so I want to try to make it.  That would be so bad ass.  We actually have  Wii too, but I don’t play a whole lot.  SO doesn’t like playing very much and would rather watch TV.  Since we only have 1 television that means I don’t get to play.  No worries though, I just play before SO gets in from work.  Since SO also has to work Saturday, I sometimes play then too.  It will rock to have more people to play with.





Speaking of SO, they’re still stepped out.  It bites, but I’m coping the best I can.  We’re still talking everyday, but they are still gone and it hurts. I talked to them yesterday evening, and it appears that a health problem we thought we’d beaten may be coming back again.  That would suck; the disease feeds on stress & hormones, so it makes sense that it would show up now.  We’ve made a doctors appointment for Monday and hopefully, Doc will tell us that there nothing to worry about.  I don’t think either of us wants to go back through THAT again.  I’m not sure how much progress we’re making in our personal situation, but I’m happy the lines of communication are still open.  I guess this may just be something that will take time.  It makes me want to scream though.  It’s just SOO crappy that 2 people who love each other this much can’t get their shit together and be happy.  Talk about not being able to see the forest because of the trees.  Sheesh!  I’m hoping we can hang out tonight so that we can have some time to chat.  I really just feel like there is some hole in me when SO isn’t around.  I know it’s silly, but that’s really how I feel.  I don’t want to wake up, I don’t want to go to sleep, I don’t want to do anything.  It really blows.





The garden has been quiet this week.  I’ve got just about everything planted, so for the most part it’s just a waiting game.  I’ve still got some daisies to put in, but that will only take a few minutes.  I’ll also get some lettuce and more bush bean plants started over the next couple weeks, but that’s pretty simple too.  That’s the nice thing about the square foot garden it that it doesn’t take much time to do anything.  I’ve only got 32 squares, so I can do anything in just a bit.  Need to plant some beans?  Poke 9 holes in a square and plant some seeds.  Simple.  I can also weed in no time flat as I can reach everything sitting down on a small stool.  I love it.  Harvesting is easy too.  I can literally walk around the whole garden in 10 steps.  There’s no wasted space though as all the things are planted in a strict grid.  This keeps the plants neat so they are easy to work around.  I can pull weeds very easily from my stool which beats the crap out of crawling around.  LOL!  If any of you want to grow stuff, it’s really hard to beat.  Or, I could be biased.  Ha!  But seriously, if have crappy soil it’s great for getting some fresh veggies which are SO MUCH better than the stuff at the grocery store.





I guess that’s it for todays entry.  Thanks for reading, and I hope to talk again soon!  Love Amy.

quickly updating

I’m such a forgetful dork.  My grand plan was to get my garden in the ground (err boxes) on Saturday.  This plan was foiled my my own forgetfulness.  You’d think that I’d be used to it by now, but its still a bit upsetting.  See, I start all my plants at the parents place in their really cool sunroom.  Lots of sheltered place for the little guys.  When I drove out on Saturday to get my stuff, I totally forgot that they were going to be out of town.  I’d left my keys sitting on the shelf at home.  #$%&*@@!  Perhaps it was better that way.  Easter sunday was rainiy & cold all day, so that probably wouldn’t have been good on the tender new plants anyway…





SO and I spent Sunday together though.  They showed up early and we took the dogs to the park before the rain started.  After that, it was a quickie trip to WaffleHouse for a nutritious (ha!) breakfast and a trip by the craft store for some scrapbooking junk.  We talked about a lot of stuff, and I feel like we may be making progress.  They’ve stayed at the house since then so I really feel good about that.  I think we’re all sleeping better being together as a family.  I can actually get rest instead of just feeling like a zombie all the time.  It’s really nice.  I know that all the furrkids are happy too.  It’s really crazy to see how much different they act when SO is around.  Much more bounding and playful.  I guess having the pack split up is really hard on them too.




I got off a little early today, so I ran out to mom & dads to pick some of my plants.  I grabbed all the tomato plants, the peppers, and my spearmint.  It’s all in the ground now, and I’m already dreaming of fresh salsa & mojitos.  I can’t wait!  The tomato crop is a bit more varied this year with 2 sweet 100 plants, 8 italian tree tomato plants, and 2 climbing triplcrop tomatos.  2 of those are new for me this year, so I’m pretty excited to see how they do.  Dad planted a few too, but I bet mine will be WAYY better. LOL!  I’ve still got a few empty squares, so I’ll be putting in some more lettuce, some bush green beans, and some daisies in a couple more weeks.  I like to stagger that stuff so I can push the harvest out a little longer.  Tomatos seem to produce forever around here though, so I normally don’t need to do that.

weekend, I missed you

Guess I haven’t quite got the habit yet.  sorry for the lack of updates this week, I feel like my life has been dumped on its head.  SO and I are still somewhat apart, and that’s been KILLING me lately.  Tough on them too, this is really the type of thing that’s hard to hide.  sucks though.  We had dinner together this week and are still continueing to talk everyday.  I just keep praying that this will come to a good resolution.

SO just finished up another round (hopefully the last for a while) of dental work. Just 2 cavities filled this time and a good cleaning. Not bad, but the last 8 months or so have seen several visits for a root canal, crown, etc so it’s been EXPENSIVE. The dentist suggested that SO consider a teeth whitening program to get rid of some spots. SO had braces several years back, and you know what that does to your teeth. Our dentist was a great sport about it and said that we wouldn’t even need a “pro” job and suggested a site to us that had reviewed some of the best teeth whitener prducts available OTC. We’ve sent off for some samples, so I’ll let you know how it works out.

I got some stuff started in the garden this week.  I follow the square foot gardening method made popular by Mel Bartholomew.  It works really good for the tiny space we have.  And, since everything is in raised beds I can actually get stuff to grow on our rock of a property.  Seriously, a rouck hound would LOVE our house.  We can’t even grow grass or weeds it’s so rocky around here.  The boxes work good though.  I had fresh tomatoes until October last year, and was able to havest fresh herbs all winter long.  I’m changing up some variteys of stuff this year (bush beans & tomato types), and I hope they do well.  My dad is even helping me put up some mesh panels at his house and we’re going to plant some blackberries and raspberries.

I’ve got a follow up on my experience with trying to buy glasses online. It worked out GREAT! I ended up ordering from zennioptical.com and couldn’t be happier. It took exactly 7 days from the time I placed my order (I used to wait longer at my optometrist) and they arrived perfect. I got 3 complete pair (1 with clip on sunglasses) for $78. This isn’t any cheap crap either. I got anti-glare, anti-scratch, anti-UV, hi index lenses. All the glasses came wrapped in a microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth and in a hard case. I saved SOO much over my last pair from LensCrappers it isn’t even funny.

Updates Ya'll

It’s update time campers.  SO and I are still spending a bit of time apart.  It’s been supremely hard on both of us, but I firmly believe that it’s allowing them to work through some very important things.  That’s what marriage is about.  Supporting your spouse even when it’s hard.  We’re still taking several times a day, and SO came by Tuesday, and we took the dogs to the doggie park and spent some time a bit of time discussing their upcoming vet trip (yearly vaccination time) and pet insurance for cats.  We’ve got three of those as well, and the vet bill really add up.

Spent some “quality” time on the trainer on wednesday.  Got in about 30 minutes with no real pain to speak of.  I walked kinda like Frankenstein the next morning (stiff achilles), but it never really hurt.  I’m a bit puzzled by this, but I haven’t talked to Doc yet to see if this is good or bad.  Guess I should do that huh?

We just got or order of digital TV converters in too.  So ordered them a few weeks back (with some coupon thing) so we could get free digital TV.  I’m not real sure how it all works, but they say it will.  It would be nice to chop the cable bill back even more and save some cash.  I’ve got a feeling that our electric rates will really go up this summer, so a little extra savings now would be nice.  It’s neat all the little ways we’ve been finding to save money lately.  Right now, it’s just to help us pay off our credit cards, but once that’s done we should be able to build up some pretty sizable savings; I hope so anyway.