JTOK Chatter > Page 396

To all pet owners

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To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door at nose height.

Dear Dogs and Cats,

The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn’t help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years—canine or feline attendance is not required.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat’s butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:

To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:

  1. They live here. You don’t.
  2. If you don’t want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. (That’s why they call it furniture.)
  3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
  4. To you, it’s an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn’t speak clearly.

Remember: In many ways, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:

  1. Eat less
  2. Don’t ask for money all the time
  3. Are easier to train
  4. Normally come when called
  5. Never ask to drive the car
  6. Don’t hang out with drug-using friends
  7. Don’t smoke or drink
  8. Don’t have to buy the latest fashions
  9. Don’t want to wear your clothes
  10. Don’t need a “gazillion” dollars for college.
  11. And finally, if they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

Starting the fertility monitor…

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So the temperature thing was a BIG pain in the ass.

Yes, I managed to take it every morning when I was supposed to, but I never saw ANY rhyme or reason to anything (i.e. no noticable increases like you’re supposed to see). I even plugged the data in to Excel ❗ to make sure I wasn’t missing any trends, LOL…and that was inconclusive as well. 🙄

So I give up.

And I am moving on to the Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor, which “reliably indicates the days of your cycle when you are most likely to conceive—the days closest to when the egg is released from your ovary (ovulation).”

It gets very high ratings from users, so we’ll see if we have any luck with it. I hope we do for two reasons… 1) Because we want to get pregnant :)) and 2) because it was expensive (although we got it cheaper via ebay).

We are now officially a Toyota family!

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We went tonight to get the paperwork out of the way, planning on going back tomorrow to just pick up the keys and go…but the salesman called to say the car would be ready tonight! So we did the paperwork, went out for a burger, then came back in an hour to get the car!

Here’s the proud new driver getting in his car for the first time:

We came home, then it was my turn to drive the car as we needed to return our loaner car to our friends (again). And let me tell you, it is VERY strange to drive the car.

  • For one, you don’t need a key. Yes, you need the fob, but it can be in your pocket or in the front seat—just in very close proximity.
  • Second, you press a button to start the car.
  • Third, you have to look at the dash to see if the car is “ready” because you can’t hear it start (damn that electric motor is quiet).
  • Fourth, the shifter is VERY strange—just a tiny little knob on the dash.
  • Fifth, it BEEPS the entire time you’re in reverse, even if you aren’t moving.
  • Sixth, it’s somewhat disconcerting to use a video backup monitor if you’re not used to it.
  • Seventh (wow, I didn’t think I’d have this many things to say!), it’s amazing to see CURRENT MPG 99.9!
  • Eighth, you have to press a button to put the car in park, too!
  • Ninth, you have to press the Power button to turn the car off. Yes, it sounds logical (and it is, I guess), except when you’re doing it for the first time. :))

But it’s fun. And gets great gas mileage. So YAY!

New car update!

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11:23am

YAY!!!

Tom just called to say he talked to our LOCAL Toyota place and they will beat the deal that we got in Raleigh. This is interesting, since when he talked to them before, they didn’t even really want to talk to us and gave us the runaround. So, if they give us the same amount for a trade in, we are set! And we can get the car locally! And they have an additional warranty that they give you for free!

I am keeping my fingers crossed!

1:55pm

ARGH!!!

Good news? Tom just called and the local dealer gave us a better price.

Bad news? The one we can get tomorrow is silver. To get red, we have to wait until May. (I could wait until May, but we are worried about his car and that damn starter issue.)

Silver would be just okay—I just don’t like boring colors. I really really want red. And if we are spending all this money, I would really like the color I want. But is it worth chancing his car conking out before we trade it in?

2:05pm

Tom just called again and our choices are:

  • Silver with gray interior in 3 days.
  • Red with bisque interior by end of April.
  • Red with gray interior by end of May

I don’t want Silver and hubby doesn’t want bisque, and neither of us wants to wait until the end of May. I told him to decide since it’s his car. 🙂

2:35pm

We are going with the Silver. Tom decided he didn’t want to wait (or chance anything with his car) so he started the paperwork and we should have the car on Wednesday!

3:07pm

Tom called me from the parking lot of the dealership to tell me he was sitting in his car…in front of five salesman…and the car wouldn’t start. 88| I told him he should get out, tell the sales guy he had decided to just trade it in now, and then call me to come get him! :)) As luck would have it, however, the car started on his third or fourth try, so he just went home. But it reinforced our decision to trade the car in sooner rather than later!

5:20pm

As soon as I got home, Tom told me that he had called the guy we were dealing with in Raleigh, to tell him we had decided to get the car locally because they were able to beat his best deal…and the Raleigh guy says—are you ready?—give him another chance, he can do better, he is sure he can get the trade-in up another $500.

So…he obviously didn’t give us his best deal then, did he? 🙄 I know, the joy of car dealers. |-|

Tom had to tell him that we would have LOVED to have done business with him (he really was a great guy and treated us very well), but unfortunately we had already started the paperwork with the local dealership, since we thought we had already gotten his best offer.

This is entirely scary…yet also exciting!

Loaner Vehicle, Take 2

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So, interesting sidenote.

Tonight, we returned our loaner vehicle back to Roger and Ursula and as we were going to leave, Tom’s car wouldn’t start. 88| >:XX

We thought it was a drained battery, so we tried jumping it, but that wasn’t it (the clock didn’t reset). So, between the two guys, they decided it was a starter issue (something like a bad part in the starter? so it’s not always bad?).

So they tried to start it about 20 times and it finally caught. And we drove the loaner vehicle home again, just in case. Once we were home, Tom was able to turn it off and on a few times with no problem.

So, I think it’s really time to get rid of this car. (See, I just KNEW we were supposed to trade it in YESTERDAY!)

Car shopping in Raleigh

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Phew, what a day.

Long story short, hubby’s car wasn’t worth NEARLY what we’d hoped it would be, either from Carmax OR Toyota… although we haggled a bit with Toyota to up it $500 to get us closer to our bottom line for a new car.

/House Hunters mode on

So, did they stay under their budget and go for the sight-unseen used 2005 black Prius with tan interior from an Orlando Carmax with 49k miles? Or did they go for the brand spanking new “really red” 2008 Prius with the grey interior that isn’t even on the lot yet that they have to wait two weeks for but is slightly over their budget?

/House Hunters mode off

We should have a new car—with the exact specs we wanted—in about two weeks! 88|

The Title Saga

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So after MUCH research, including reading pages upon pages at Consumer Reports online, pages upon pages of used car forums, and finally test-driving our neighbor’s new Toyota Prius Hybrid (which we REALLY liked)…Tom emailed a bunch of local Toyota dealers to see what deals they could cut us…and we decided to head to Raleigh.

Of course, we would be trading in Tom’s car, so we needed the title.

Well, docs like that are kept in the safe, except it wasn’t in there. And since it’s not where it SHOULD be, it could be anywhere! >:XX

I mean, the last place I actually remember seeing it was on the chair downstairs, like six or eight months ago (when we paid it off and the credit union sent us the docs)!! 88| I swear I remember putting it in the safe, but since I didn’t, it means it got put with a stack of papers “to go upstairs” and then got lost in the shuffle.

We have torn the office apart. I have emptied and sorted our “to be filed” bins (that had two years of stuff in them). I have torn apart two closets. I have looked behind things. I have looked under things. I have looked in things.

It was just nowhere.

So I went online and filled out all the paperwork to get a new title. Of course it has to be mailed to Michigan and should take like two weeks round trip (and cost $15)… so you know we will find the damn title within that two weeks.

FAST FORWARD TWO HOURS

YAY!

We found the title! I just kept thinking I KNOW I put it somewhere… Well, turns out, I did. 😳

It was in a manila envelope of “things to remember to show Tom when he comes home”—which ended up sandwiched between the wall and his nightstand. I know I told him about it and handed it to him when he came home, but he just thought “I will deal with it later.”

And the title was in there, right on top.

So now maybe it’s fate we find/buy a car tomorrow? If nothing else, we will have a great lunch!

New cell phones!

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I had been having problems with my cell phone for quite some time.

For no reason, it would drop to ZERO bars while just sitting in the office. I could physically hold it in my hand and watch it jump from 5 bars to 0 to 3 to 0, etc. This was a major pain when Tom was in Iraq trying to call me, and he couldn’t get through!

The most frustrating part is that when I went to make a call or send a text message—making sure I had decent bars—as soon as I hit “send” it dropped back to 0 bars and my call or message wouldn’t go through.

I finally got fed up and went in to Alltel, and they tried to tell me “Maybe a new building went up that is blocking service from the tower.” Um, no. No building of such substantive measure to BLOCK cell phone service recently went up—I wanted to say You DO know you’re talking about Jacksonville, right? Have you seen any skyscrapers go up lately? 🙄 They had no other solution for me, so I just chalked it up to gremlins and went about my daily business.

It seemed to get worse (i.e. happen more often) as time wore on, so I thought maybe something was wrong with my phone, so I decided to use Tom’s phone (since he wasn’t using it 😀 and we have the same exact phone) so I took the phones in and had them switch service (just activate his phone with my number). It took less than five minutes.

Unfortunately, his had the same problem. >:XX I wanted to get my phone replaced, but Alltel couldn’t guarantee me the same phone (a NEW phone, that is—they could try to get me a refurbished one) and they couldn’t tell me which phone they would use to replace it with UNTIL I processed the warranty claim. What a joke.

So I just dealt with it, because we were still far enough away from our contract ending that if we bought a new phone, we’d have to pay full price.

Fast forward to Tom approaching his “getting home date” and having to restart service on his phone. So BOTH of our phones would be messed up. Cutting a long story short, a friend gave us an Alltel phone he wasn’t using that Tom wanted to use (it was a fancy palm-type phone) and once Tom started using it, we noticed that it didn’t drop bars like mine did. So it had to be the specific phone.

Fast forward another month or so, and I was just flat out tired of the spotty service, so we were looking at new plans (with new companies) and went to Alltel just to see if a new representative might have a new answer for us. He basically said it could be the phone itself, and if that’s the case, exchanging it wouldn’t do any good… and long story short, was there a phone we wanted to buy instead, since we were close to our contract being up and we could get any phone at the “new” (reduced) price instead of the full price.

So I got the LG Scoop in Citrus:

lgscoop

I love it. It has a slide out keyboard and everything. It takes the same data card as my old phone, so that’s good. It was only $50 after rebate, so that’s good. And I could get it in a color, so that’s good. It has a camera, so that’s good…but it doesn’t have a flash, so that’s not good.

They transferred all my contacts, I reorganized them all, and now we’re just waiting for the cable to come from Amazon so we can load contact photos and have our own personalized ring tones again. Oh yeah, about a week after I had mine and had decided I loved it, Tom wanted one, too. So he has gray!

YAY! Cell phones that work! And don’t drop bars!

Still working on the blogs…

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Unfortunately, when one problem gets fixed, another pops up.

Now I am having problems uploading photos. Yes, they were there at one point (when I said the blogs were back up), but I have taken them down for the time being while I try to get the actual uploading problem figured out.

The new software is very cool, and I am sure it will all be worth it… it’s just getting it all tweaked.

And the blogs are back!

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The short story?

We’re back up but it was a pain in the ass.

The long story?

What should have literally taken an hour (just waiting for the files to upload) actually ended up taking a few days…because once I uploaded everything and ran the install program (mere minutes), I got errors galore. I could access the blogs—they were there, and you could read them—but I couldn’t access the backoffice, which is where you actually write the posts.

Luckily they have GREAT support forums, and AMAZING people helping out there. It took about a day for some poor soul to take pity on me, LOL, but EdB attacked my problem…and solved it quickly (Go Ed! Go Ed!) and easily.

Well, it was a stupid thing, really, but easy. For whatever reason, my FTP client (what I use to upload files to my website server) was not overwriting things with the correct date (well, something like that anyway—that was the gist of it) and was consequently corrupting my files, which was giving me the errors. All Ed actually had to do (after some other tweaking and fiddling around just to check things out) was to REupload a certain directory and it worked. YAY EDB!

So now I can post again.

But I still have lots of “backoffice” stuff to do—but that won’t affect readers for anything other than appearance. Meaning, this blue color on all four blogs? It’s GOT to go. It’s just NOT me. :))

Do you have CORD meals?

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It’s our new thing that we like to call the Cleaning Out the Refrigerator(TM) Dinner. :p

Our most recent CORD was really exciting interesting—pan-fried hot dogs, mashed cauliflower with butter and parmesan, and store-bought macaroni salad! I mean, you just can’t plan for something like that!

We are going to be having many more of these, I’m sure, as we have decided it is our new goal to clean out the second freezer, whittle down the pantry inventory, and keep the refrigerator/freezer stock well turned.

WARNING: Blogs may disappear for awhile.

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I desperately need to update the blog software I use—I just found out that the version I am using is obsolete, and of course the new version requires an entire revamping of the entire system… which means new templates (cool), having to recode all the customizations I have done (NOT cool), and hoping it all works without too much anguish on my part.

I am not sure when I will be doing this—I am afraid it’s going to take WAY more time than it should, so I am hesitant to start it now, when I only have about a half hour. If things go well, it might take an hour. If things go bad…well, it might take a week.

So, this is just a forewarning that if you try to reach the blog and it’s gone—or you don’t get any updates for awhile, it’s because I screwed something up in the transition.

Don’t you just love technology?

The Impala Saga To Date

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Transmission.
Out of nowhere.
Original estimate of $3500 from the dealer.
Second opinion was $2500.
Third and final opinion was $1800-$2000 so we took it there.

We would love to just trade it for something else and not worry about getting it fixed, but there’s no way we can sell it with a worthless transmission.

Although unexpected major expenses suck, the good news (if you can call it that) is that we do have the money in savings, so this won’t kill us.

But now we have to decide what we’re going to do…because apparently, this car is KNOWN for transmission issues. And even if we get it fixed, there is no guarantee of it lasting any great length of time.

And we just don’t want to drive this car…we just don’t trust it like we used to. Tom has also been burned before with vehicles developing issues which turn into other issues and finally ends up a full-fledged money pit resulting in a car with little/no trade in value.

So, stay tuned…

Oh, the other good news? Our friends, Roger and Ursula, have an extra car that we can use while Tom’s car is being fixed!! YAY!

Grape Bon Bon

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Grape Bon Bon

So a friend on a message board was recently talking about a beverage they loved that they couldn’t find locally, and had to order from across the country (or possibly even out of the country)—and of course pay a premium to ship it.

It got me to thinking about a beverage I missed… Back in 2001-2002 when we lived in Stafford, Virginia, there was a little Asian grocery that had the most wonderful green grape beverage that came in 6oz cans (like half a soda can). It wasn’t carbonated, so I would guess it was juice, and it had actual bits of green grapes in it (that part I distinctly remember because they would get stuck in the drink hole).

I couldn’t remember the brand name, the drink name, or anything else—I just remembered that it was green grapes (although I think there was also a strawberry version).

I googled my heart out and the closest I found was something from a Taiwanese blog which was labeled “white grape juice with fruit jelly” which was close, but no cigar.

So I posted to the SOAK (Source Of All Knowledge) on a message board—the SOAK is known to be able to find anything you are ever trying to find. (The SOAK is actually just the collective knowledge and brain power of tens of thousands of members.)

And within 21 minutes, someone had found it!! 88|

GRAPE BON BON BY HAITAI

Of course, it costs more than twice as much as the product itself to ship it (12 cans are $6.99 and it cost $13-something to ship)—but it about equals the price I paid in the store, so it’s all good. I am ordering some post haste!

WOOHOO!

I hate solicitors.

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Not only do I not get paid enough in general, I do not get paid enough to deal with walk-in solicitors. Ugh. 😡

A Quill rep just came in to the office. I said hi, no thanks, we buy exclusively from Staples and McBee.

“Well, we’re the [something] side of Staples. No overhead. Up to 20% less.”

No thank you, we’re happy.

“Oh, so you’re not interested in saving money?”

Nope, buh-bye.

I know he’s doing his job, and I smiled the entire time, but seriously. Go away.

One of these times, I am going to ask one of these lovely solicitors just what NO SOLICITING means to them, as that’s the sign we have outside out door. 😈

Crazy dog will eat just about anything!

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Now, I know she likes a lot of things. I mean, she loves tomatoes, carrots, apples, and bananas—and we have recently given her pineapple and oranges, which she snarfed.

So I was making guacamole this weekend and of course, Maggie is right at my feet, hoping for something (anything!) to fall to the floor. I had cilantro in my hand at the moment, so held it down to her to sniff, thinking she would turn up her nose.

Imagine my surprise when she jumped up and grabbed it out of my hand! (So of course, I had to run and get the camera to try and get a picture.) I didn’t let her have it, but it was just so cute!

Handy Hubby!

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Ugh, the washer is apparently broken as we have puddles of water in the laundry room. It has been slowly leaking, so we’ve been avoiding it.

Yes, a bad thing to do as a homeowner. |-|

So Tom googled and discovered that it’s most likely just a clogged pump, which he can get to by taking the front cover off (instead of having to detach the 200# dryer and empty the entire laundry room in order to tip over the washer to look at hoses).

After digging out our appliance manuals, finding the model number, going to the Frigidaire site and downloading the parts manual…we googled replacement parts for washers, found two sites, and ordered it!

Thank goodness it was only $40, phew! And thank goodness I have a handy hubby!

Oh, and it was an underwire that made it down into the trap and wore a hole in the rubber. Oops!

Phew!

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We went in and had them redo the one line on our taxes that was messed up…and thankfully, we’re still getting $1700 back.

Once we see where our savings account level is, I think some (all?) might go into our IRA for next year.

WAIT. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. I hate taxes.

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Long story short, the tax guy screwed up.

Short story long, I just thought it was too weird, so we pulled out last year’s taxes to check, and there was a different line filled out than I expected—a 401k contribution.

Now, we have money taken out of Tom’s pay (the military TSP plan), but it’s not technically considered a 401k, so I checked…and discovered that, yep, the preparer had read one of MY forms wrong.

I get a statement from my 401k (an old one from Staples that I no longer contribute to and have yet to switch) and it just lists what the total amount in the account is. And he put THAT amount instead of the ZERO that was in the “current year contribution” box. (I almost didn’t even include that form in the paperwork, but like to keep all the tax stuff in one place.)

So that’s almost $2000 different. 88|

I tried to do the calculations on how exactly that would affect the bottom line, but there were additional forms it also changed, so I gave up.

All I know is we are NOT getting $2000 back. We are both going in tomorrow to redo them.

Stay tuned.

Temps are being taken.

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So I am on my third thermometer (second basal thermometer). I just couldn’t stand waiting THREE minutes for the temp to register, so had to find a new one.

(On a side note, I am completely surprised at how cheap digital thermometers are. At Walmart, there were some basic ones for like $2.98!)

So this morning was the fourth day I’ve taken my temp, and I have to say this is not a fun thing.

Why?

Well, you’re supposed to do it as soon as you wake up, before you move, before you get out of bed, before you pee, before everything. They tell you you should still be half awake when you take it.

And therein lies the problem.

When I’m still half awake, it’s dark. And I can’t see: I don’t have my contacts in—or my glasses on. And I usually have to pee. Badly. There is really no time to fumble for the light, then the thermometer, then my glasses (so I can read the results). I could skip the writing-it-down part, since the thermometer remembers the last result and I could write it down later, but it’s easier to just write it down then.

So what has actually happened?

I usually get up at about 5:30 or 6 to pee, then go back to bed, then take my temp when I actually am ready to get up—usually around 6:45 or 7.

So I’m technically doing it wrong, but I think I’m still close enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.

So we’ll see.

Next month? The Clear Blue Easy Ovulation Monitor. :>>

Taxes!

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Tom just got ours done. (Yes, it’s nice having him back so he can do these, instead of me having to take time off work to go to base.)

He called me to ask if we itemized last year (yes) and then called again to get our bank account.

Then he called a third time to ask “Did we get screwed on our taxes last year?” I said no, we got a few hundred back (which is what we usually get).

And he finishes “Because we’re getting like two grand back this year!” 88|

I assume it has to do with him being deployed, but we are still going to compare the two years returns tonight, just in case.

But wow, two grand. Hello savings account!!

Things have been planted!

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I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get my things planted! And by things, I mean veggies and herbs! And by waiting, I mean…agonizingly over like two weeks!

First we bought the tomato baskets. Online. So had to wait for them to arrive. It was still kinda cool out, and we wanted to make sure we were all done with frost, so we waited.

Then a few days later we bought the potting soil.

Then a few days later we bought the root stuff—online, so had to wait for it to be delivered.

Then since we had to wait for that, we figured we might as well wait to get the plants so they didn’t just sit on the deck.

Then we finally went to buy plants at Lowes, and they didn’t have herbs.

So then we were still waiting for the root stuff, so went elsewhere to get the herbs.

So we finally had everything—and then Tom was sick.

And finally.

Tonight.

We planted!!

SWEET BASIL (6 bunches!!)

CHIVES, DILL & ROSEMARY

(The chives were replanted. They used to be in with the basil, but I wanted more basil this year!)

THAI BASIL & ITALIAN PARSLEY

(YET TO BE PLANTED)

TOMATOES (3)

(And in the background you can see the hanging peppers (2 red, 2 yellow, and 1 jalapeno.)

More ME pictures

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I wanted to add a few new pictures (in the right column) and ended up adding some old old pictures (circa 1974 to 1980) and some new pictures, up to and including the cruise.

I still think it’s VERY weird to see that many pictures of me at once…but on the other hand, I think it’s cool as well.

For posterity, in case I ever delete them, here is what it looks like today:

If you are using Internet Explorer, you should be able to hover over the pictures (in the right-hand column, not above) to see the date. If you are using Firefox, I have no idea why it doesn’t work, so sorry about that.

Ugh, buying a new thermometer!

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So I needed a new thermometer so I can check my temp every morning.

So off I went to Walgreens and bought a store-branded one that said “QUICK 10 SECOND READING!” and yes, it took 10 seconds, but first my temp was 94, a moment later it was 96, and the very next moment was was 97. What is the point of a 10-second read if it’s not in your mouth long enough to be correct (apparently)?

So I took it back.

This time I got a real basal thermometer, and let me tell you it’s strange to see your temperature to TWO decimal points. The yucky thing is this one takes up to THREE MINUTES for a reading. Yep, yuck. And even then, my temperature varied widely—and not even in an increasing manner like before—it was like 97.28 then 96.45 then 98.23.

What gives?

I have to assume this temperature variation is somewhat normal…but it just seems very odd that the first thermometer kept increasing (like it never got a good read) and the second one is all over the place—with temps taken one immediately after the other.

I guess I am just afraid that if the thermometer gives such (to me) skewed results now, what good is it going to be in detecting the temperature increase I’m looking for?

I guess I need to go googling.

It doesn’t feel like Easter.

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I hate it not feeling like Easter.

Easter used to be this great day when my whole family (mom’s side) would get together at my grandpa’s house (an 1.5 hour drive for us, we’d go for the whole weekend), you’d get dressed up, the house would smell for hours of delicious things like sausage (oh, the sausage…the stuff of dreams!), cheesy potatoes, ham…and the side dishes like deviled eggs and our family’s homemade dill pickles. After dinner the guys would do the dishes (no dishwasher at the old house) and then we’d spend the rest of the afternoon playing cards and chatting. And there would always be the delicious leftovers to take home (well, minus the deviled eggs!).

Now we have moved away. And my grandfather has died. And my mom just told me they aren’t even getting together this year because too many people couldn’t make it.

I know people are busier than ever in today’s world, but I honestly wonder why so many of them couldn’t make it to an afternoon meal?

Oh well.

I just really miss family get-togethers, and it makes me sad to miss them—and to know that even though everyone (except us) still lives close enough to each other to make it work and it still doesn’t work? :'(

So our Easter is going to be spent outside on yard work: We have to pull up a dead tree in the front yard and replace it (already purchased). Tom wants to fertilize the lawn. Bushes need to be trimmed. Weeds need to be pulled. Hopefully it will be another perfect-weather day like yesterday (mid 70s, breezy, and sunny) so being outside will be wonderful.

But it still won’t feel like Easter.

Here we go again.

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We have decided to start trying again…

Tom has been tested (before he left, actually) and he is fine.

I have been through all of the uncomfortable ultrasound and radiation tests (while he was gone—that was fun by myself) and long story short (no need to go into details about the not-fun procedures) I have a clean bill of reproductive health. The doc says there is no good reason I cannot get pregnant. (He is willing to put me on some “lite” fertility drugs if I choose, but we are waiting a few months just to see what happens.)

So he we go again. 😀

Day 8 – Sea Day

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Our last sea day on our way home—how sad. Although having said that, we both agreed that eight days is almost too long (or at least it felt that way). So we agree that seven days is probably the prime cruising time.

First things first—we slept in, since we were up late the night before. Unfortunately, last night I started feeling sick after I finished journaling and tried to go to sleep—I only had three drinks, but I think I mixed too many liquors trying to decide what sounded good. And Tom had drunk a little too much so he finally slept in as well. He made it up in time to attend the debarkation meeting at 11.

We decided it was finally time to play mini golf—since that was one of the few “entertainment” things I actually wanted to do on the ship. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong day—a sea day is NOT the day to play mini golf, since it’s on the top deck and windy as hell. So we only played the three holes that were most sheltered from the wind. I also wanted to go down the waterslide, but Tom assured me it was NOTHING special and could really be avoided.

We just sort of hung around all day, running into friends and chatting, hitting up the wifi, and I think we even got in another nap—then right before dinner we had a little farewell get-together with some of our Cruise Critic friends. Then it was off to our last dinner, which interestingly was my most favorite meal of the whole week (not including the supper club dinner earlier in the week). Tom and I both had the New England Lobster and Crab Cake (Served with Herb Salad and Roasted Pepper Remoulade) which was really good, then I had the Caesar Salad (which was the same salad I’d been getting all week, but it just tasted better tonight) and Tom had the Heart of Iceberg Lettuce Salad Garnished with Florida Orange and Grapefruit Segments. For the main course, then I had the Neptune Platter (Fried Large Black Tiger Prawns, Calamari Rings and Breaded Fish Filet Served with Fried Potatoes and Roasted Bell Pepper Remoulade) which just hit the spot and was very good. Tom had the Tender Roasted Prime Rib of American Beef au Jus and a Baked Potato wit Traditional Toppings. Dessert was a Grand Marnier Souffle Served with Orange Vanilla Sauce which everyone just went gaga over, and while it was yummy, I am not a huge custard fan, so I let Tom finish it for me.

After dinner we went back to the room to start packing, as our luggage had to be out in the hallway by midnight, and we had plans to see the last show, Carnival Legends. Now, if you haven’t heard of this show, it’s made up of Carnival guests who won karaoke contests throughout the week—singing parts like Madonna, Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, and Frank Sinatra. We actually knew two people ibn the show—the Britney, who had done it before on another cruise and had such a fun time she wanted to do it again…and Elton, one of our friends who was completely drunk during karaoke and we goaded him into singing, and then we got him to agree to do the Legends show. Needless to say he hated us since he didn’t realize he was agreeing to a full-fledged performance on the main stage for the entire ship! So, our whole group was there to support him, sitting in the front row! It was an absolute riot!!

After the show, we sat and chatted and said some goodbyes, then we decided to hit the dance club one last time. On the way through the casino, I sat down with $1 at the penny slots and tripled my money in a few minutes—woohoo! I was still down overall for the week, but not by much. We didn’t stay too long at the dance club because we were exhausted…and they were playing sucky music. So it was back to the cabin to finish packing the odds and ends and then hitting the sheets.