My shoes arrived today.......sortof

Well lets see, I've been tracking them ever since I recieved the email that said they had been shipped. I figured they would be on my doorstep today. Bob got the mail and starting singing me Happy Birthday as he handed me the package. I tore them open all exited to see them and try them on. I stared at the box in amazement then said "these are not my shoes". You see, in the box was a pair of men's Reebok black basketball shoes size 10 1/2. (not at all what I ordered). I called the 1-800 # on the invoice and told the man on the phone my situation. He says... "Hmmm, they shouldn't have sent you those. I see clearly on your order what you purchsed. Infact, this order shouldn't have been filled since the shoes you ordered are no longer in stock." Do you all remember the problem I had just trying to purchase these shoes? This really has me mad. I asked the man what I was supposed to do now. He tells me how to send them back and get a "full refund". After he says that, he says how did you purchase these? I said on a gift card. Oh well, that changes things now. I have to fill out the back of the return invoice and mark that I want a full refund, but what they'll do is reimburse my account. I said so then all I have to do is go back on line and re order a pair. "Oh, no, you'll have to call us back to order them over the phone". Well hells bells...let's just complicated things even more. If you all think this has me pissed, you should know that Bob is really pissed. He's wishing now he would have just gotten me a Walmart gift card instead. Bob's thinking of keeping the shoes for himself since he doesn't have a pair of sneakers. He put them on and I think they'll be okay even though he only wears a 9 and 1/2 shoe. My guess is that come Monday, I'll be taking them back to the post office for a return.

Nothing is easy anymore is it?

Small set back

I've been fighting a chest cold this week and it's kicking my ass. This morning I sound like "frank". since it's Friday, I got on the scales (even though I didn't want to) and I've gained 2 pounds. I have increased my stretching exercises too. Oh well, just have to keep at it and not let this get to me. Although, I hate seeing a gain in weight when I've really been watching what I ate. (I'll blame it on the Birthday cake from Last Sunday...hehehe) I know that has nothing to do with it...just ahve to have something to blame it on.

The basement project is coming along. Bob and I started building the new walls yesterday. With the weather her only in the teens today, he said I didn't have to go out in the cold and go to work. I'm going to anyway, because there is a wonderful fireplace in the basement and yesterday it was warmer down there than the rest of the house was. Unless he has too many other projects of his own to work on today, that's where I'll be.

Oh,...and I had to take my car into the shop and they kept it over the night. Seems the transmission is leaking around some seal. (He told me what it was, but I forget know). It's going to cost about $180 and should be done today. I guess that's better than him telling me the entire transmission was shot.

I'm really hoping to have a better week this week. I want this chest cold to go away and a few more pounds can leave right along with it!!!

Icecream Man

This is a wierd thing to blog about, but, around here, these trucks drive me crazy. I'm used to having the Icecream Man come around (with the noisy truck playing that God-awful noise they say is a "jingle") to alert the kids that popsicles are just around the block and coming soon to your street, all summer long. Once Summer is over and the kids go back to school, you never hear from that truck again until next summer comes around. Well, that's not the way they do things here. These trucks go out everyday, all year long, no matter what the weather is. I think it's totally rediculous myself. (One just went by my house). We see and hear them all the time. The place of business where they park these trucks in about one mile from here. The condition these trucks are in amazes me that they are road safe. I still believe that these trucks are a cover for drug running. I had my doubts about some of the trucks back home. Why else would these trucks be out no matter the weather all year round? It's just a hunch I have.

How often does the Icecream truck come around in your area?

All I wanted was a pair of shoes......

Bob bought me a gift card from Lady FootLocker so I could go and pick out a really nice good pair of shoes for my walks. He put $50 on it. So, I traveled to our local Lady FootLocker today and look over what they have. Now call me cheap or even old school, but I just can't see paying $90 for a pair of shoes that I'm going to walk on the sidewalks with. If I was going to a gym and always knew I'd wear them indoors, maybe. I found a really nice pair of Nike walking shoes that where $60. Total came to $62.99. I handed the lady my gift card and all hell broke loose. Seems the register wasn't taking my gift card. She calls the 1-800 # on the back of the card to verify it was an active card. Sure enough, there is $50 on it. She tries it again with no luck. She calls the 1-800 # again and this time speaks to a person. After explaining what was going on to the woman on the other end of the phone line, that lady gives the clerk an "over ride" number to use. They hang up, she tries again....nothing. She calls the # back again. They tell her they can't help her that she now needs to call her help desk. So she calls them. They tell her the satellite is down and it won;t take the card, just put it in as cash. Well, the 3 employees working today have no clue obviously, that she meant to "over ride" the card and put the sale in as cash. She tries to run my card again and now it says decline. I'm staying calm because I know it's not this girls fault (entirely). She calls the 1-800 # AGAIN and tells them everything that has transpired. Seems when the 1st lady gave her the override #, she deleted the balance from my gift card!!!! Now I'm not happy. She calls the help desk back and says "now what does she do because this customer is standing here". I told the girl, "I either want this store to give me $50 or fix my gift card somehow so that the $50 is BACK on the card!!" The woman from the help desk heard me and put the girl on hold. When she came back on, she told her she put the $50 back on my card. She hands me the card back and appologized for everything. Well that's all good and I'm still not upset with her, but I told her "I'm not leaving until I know there is $50 on that card". She was nice about it and called the 1-800 # AGAIN and verified that indeed the card was active again with the $50. All this took 45 minutes and I left the store with no shoes and doubt that I'll go back. Thank goodness the card is also good at a regular FootLocker and for shopping online. I called Bob and told him I was on my way home and briefly told him the story and got into more detail when I got here. He said he probably would have left the store without his $50 AFTER raising a rucous. I know him, he would have went off. I'm just glad that so far, things have worked out so that atleast I'm back to square one with the $50 gift card. My attitude may change the next time I go to use it. I was also glad that I was their only customer during this ordeal. It would have been really ugly if people were waiting to pay with this crap going on.

Did I mention that I'm not a fan of shopping as it is???

****UPDATE****

I just logged online to Ladyfootlocker.com and found a sweet pair of walking shoes (in my size 9.5) and bought them!!!! No hassle with the card or having to try them on or deal with clerks that make you feel like you interrupted their day by stopping by the store!!!! I should have them in a about a week to 10 days.

Happy Birthday to Me.........

Bob and our friends, had a little party for me lastnight. They tried real hard to stay with my "diet" though it would have been okay to have regular food. I got to choose the cake I wanted and Bob made it for me. It was a Devil's Food chocolate cake layered with cool whip and strawberries. He used Lite cool whip for me. It's so hard to find a cake recipe that is "low-fat" so I gave up.

Our friend John bought me a lotion warmer and I can't wait to use that after I get a shower and use the new shampoo and conditioner that Steven bought for me at the salon. They did good getting me "girlie" things.

Bob let me sleep in today and he even brought me breakfast in bed. When I did get out of bed I found the entire livingroom was decorated for my birthday. He hung streamers all around the room and even into the kitchen. I brought home some of the balloons they had from the party and they are in the office. It's nice to have a "festive" looking home this morning. He's so sweet.

So now, Bob and I are both the same age for the next 13 days until it's his Birthday on Feb 2nd.. We're both 46 years old. Here are some of the photos from the fun we had and yes, we even played pin the tail on the donkey. Can you ever be too old for that game??

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Since my digital decided to crap out on me this week....(think I need a new card for it)...I had to get a photo I have on file. This cat belongs to a friend of ours and his name is Zack. His eyes don't normally looks like this. I think it makes him look sort of wild so that's why I chose it for this week's theme.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Updated the tracker

Friday's are my weigh in day. I hate the scale, I really do. I always want to see better results than it gives me. I'll take it though since it's not a weight gain. I've now lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. This is mostly by just eating way better than I ever have in a long time. I have started some exercises, but with me being so out of shape, I'm taking that in baby steps. I'm only walking a good walk once a week and I know I have to do that more as well. I even like walking. As long as it's not a blizzard I shouldn't have any reason why I don't get out there more. I know I'm lazy when it comes to exercising and I have to get over that if I want to see better results. I have 2 more weeks to go before I update my photos (that I'm still not sharing) and retake my measurements.

My Birthday is this weekend (Sunday), but I'm sure I won't be pigging out on anything bad for me. The older I get the harder it is to loose weight. I'll be 46 this year ( only 4 more years and then it's 50!!). Where does the time go.

The basement project I've been working on is looking really well and the result of the water draining system I'm installing is showing that it's going to work when it's all finished. I had to have Steven order more sealant before I can finish. I used more than they "recommend", but his floors are anything but an even surface. Soon, Bob and I will be building new wall framing down there and shaping up the room for his home theater system. Something is wrong with my digital camera so photos will be delayed for now.

Time to get off of here and get ready to go to work!

Ever have so much on your mind and yet have nothing to say??? I want to spew it out, but I think I'd better not. After all it will just come out wrong anyway. Guess I'll go finish watching David Letterman and hope I get sleepy soon.

Insomnia?

I don't know, you tell me. This is a typical night anymore. I get very tired and go to bed. Tonight it was 10:30pm. I fall asleep relatively easy. I wake up 2 hours later and toss and turn trying to get back to sleep. Not wanting to distrupb Bob, I go to the livingroom and lay on the couch. Usually I fall asleep for about 2 more hours then wake up. I go back to bed and sleep for about 2 more hours. It's getting really rediculous and for some reason tonight, I just can't get back to sleep. I tried turning on the tv and that almost worked. The weather here has been great and right now it's still fairly warm out. With all the windows closed, it's pretty warm in here. I'm too hot and that makes me restless as well. I swear it's menopause, but with me having a hysterectomy at the age of 24, I have no clue what if any symptoms I may get regarding menopause.

So here I sit at the computer at 1:10am listening to Bob's light snore as he's comfortably sleeping in the next room. Does my diet lately have anything to do with me not sleeping?? Is it menopause??? All I know is I'm completely clueless and tired of not being able to sleep. This can't be healthy.

Any suggestions?

I had a perfect Date lastnight

Bob had a surprise for me that he kept wanting to tell me about for atleast a week. He did really well at keeping the secret. Last night was the night of "our event" as he called it. We took the Metero to DC and took the exit at Metro Center. (I know this means nothing to anyone reading this without any knowledge of the Metro System in DC). Metro Center is a location right in the heart of DC theathers and attractions. At this point I still had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do. We were talking about something as we exited the Metro station and a woman thought we were discussing a popular theater called the Warner Theater. She says to me..."are you going to the Warner Theater?". I said I didn't know and looked at Bob and said "are we?"...he says to the woman......"shhhh, it's a surprise!". She appologized and I thought it was funny....Bob did too since we were so close. As it turned out, as soon as we turned the corner, the Warner Theater was right there. I said to Bob...."Oh, there is the theater".....then I saw the marquee........"STOMP"....ONLY 2 WEEKS....JANUARY 2 - 14. He wanted to take me here on my Birthday (which is next Sunday the 21st), but this was the last weekend for it. I was thrilled!! I've been wanting to see this performance for years!!!. It was truely amazing. I highly recommed it to anyone. There were all sorts of different classes of people there at this performace with just as many different styles of wardrobe being worn. With me not knowing where we were going, I really didn't know how to dress. We dressed casual but could have very well worn our jeans and sweatshirts and fit right in. (The weather was fantastic as well. It was in the high 50's and no rain. A very light jacket was all that we needed.) This Broadway show STOMP is just fantastic. It's amazing how this group of people can make rythm and dance from brooms and trash cans and even a plastic bag. I will never be able to sit here and discribe to you how brilliant this performance is. You'll have to take my word for it and when it comes to your area....GO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! After the show was over, Bob and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a continuation of the evening. It was fitting to go there for dinner after seeing STOMP because I feel the loud music and the dancing on the monitors just helped continue on the show we had just left. He did good with his Surprise.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Wow...it's been forever since I've participated in the Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt. I've been so lazy at this.



Well this week's theme is Technology. I have the perfect photo for this. It's my Christmas gift. Bob's Brother bought me a PictureMate Personal Photo Lab. It's so cool. I can take pictures with my digital and develop however many photos on it that I want right here at my own desk without sending them out for developing. How cool is that???!!!!!

I forgot that I still haven't gotten the codes out of my old computer hard drive so I don't have the Photo Hunt thingy to display today. I'll get my act together next week.

What a Friday

I slept horribly bad lastnight and woke up with a terrible throbbing headache. My eyes were puffy and swollen and I didn't even want to move. I got up anyway because I hate it when a headache kicks my ass. I ate my small breakfast and took something for the headache and went off to work with Bob. Thank goodness he had a light schedule and there really wasn't much for me to work on in the basement, so he brought me home. I immediately laid back down in bed and he brought me a cold wash cloth for my head. Once he left to go back to work, I fell completely to sleep and slept for about 2 hours. I feel a little tired still, but I no longer have that annoying headache from this morning. It was so bad that I felt sick to my stomach. I just had a light lunch and feel better.

Now to straighten the place up a bit because this afternoon around 5:15 or so, our Friend is stopping by for a visit on her way home from work. The place isn't dirty, but I do have a few things out of place that appears cluttered. You know how it is. I'm glad it's Friday and I turned in a bill to Bob's Brother for the 23 hours of work I did there this week. It's nice to get those paychecks every week again. Bob and I go over to our friend's house nearly every Saturday morning for coffee and socializing and they live diagonal from Steven's so I can pick up my check then.

It's going to be a great weekend. I hope the rain that is in the forecast, doesn't inturrupt Bob's surprise date we have tomorrow afternoon. He is taking me somewhere and has been trying to hint to me to figure it out. He wants to tell me in the worst way, but I want to be surprised. Hmmm, I wonder what to wear? I'm really looking forward to going out. Perhaps this is an early birthday gift for me.

Back to a routine

Bob is no longer working the part time painting job in the evenings and now that the Holiday's are over, we have gotten back to "normal" routine of things. I have been back working on the basement project at Bob's Brother's house. It's been very dirty and wet work. It's going to be really rewarding when it's all done because I can stand back and say.."I did this" when Steven is all pleased with how his basement will look. Today I was working with cement. Places where I tore up wet soggy floor tiles have stayed dry and don't appear to have any leaks. I needed to lay a thin layer of cement over those spots to make the floor "somewhat" even. I'm hoping that by tomorrow, a very wet and soggy corner will be less wet so that I can get back in there and finish prepping the wall for the water drainage system I will be installing in the next few days. I haven't taken any photographs of the basement in a long time. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some new photos.

I have also been watching how I eat. I don't want to say that I'm on a diet because I'm not. I'm eating way more healthy now. I'm really trying to watch the sugars that are in my foods and I'm cutting way back on the portion sizes I've been used to eating. I haven't mentioned it, but in the 4 months I've been here in Maryland, I've gained 20 pounds. A couple of weeks ago I stepped on the scale only to be horrified to see what it said. I was 195 pounds. That's the biggest I've ever been (outside of being 9 months pregnant with a 10 pound baby and weighing in at 200 right before delivery). I'm happy to say that in just one week of not eating like a pig, I've lost 5 pounds. My goal is to get down to 140 pounds and drop a few pants sizes along the way. I'm not putting pressure on myself about this and setting a time frame, but it would be nice to reach that goal in about 6 months. A friend of mine gave me some Pilates tapes that she uses. I still haven't looked at them yet, but after I post this, I'm going out to the TV to see what it's all about. I know that Pilates is more of a strengthing thing than something that is tp be used primarily for wieght loss, but it's a start as I see it. I'll need to get back into doing my crunches that I was doing before and since the weather has been so tolerable so far this year, I'm hoping to get out and take a walk a few times a week. (I know I should everyday). I took some motivational photos of myself in my undrwear. Oh my goodness...I can't believe I got this huge. My plan is to take new photos once a month to see progress. These photos won't be posted since I take them wearing next to nothing, but I'll figure out a way to show some before and after shots.

Now to get up from this computer chair and go check out this Pilates thing.

And to think I cheer for Dallas Cowboys....

Well not anymore!! I'm trying to watch my favorite football team of all times lastnight....Ohio State Buckeyes...only to be humilated in their performance. They sure weren't looking like a 12-0 team lastnight against the University of Florida. Bob...mister supportive of my one and only team I ever root for.....NOT....sits there beside me on the couch doing the Gator Crunch motion with his hands like all the other fans were in the stadium. He says this morning....chomp, chomp, chomp. Well, that's gratitude for ya after all the Dallas Cowboy games I sat with him and cheered for. Just wait till next year....since afterall HIS COWBOY'S ARE NOT GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!! I'll just always root for the opposing team and make fun of his team!!

In all seriousness, it's only football and I really could care less. It's not going to have any impact on my life it they win or loose. But sheesh...did they have to look so stinking BAD!!!

Time to go to work now.

Rainy Friday

It sure is a good day to stay indoors today. I did go help Bob this morning with a delivery of insulation for friends of ours that are working on their house, but I'm not doing much else today. I made a quick trip over to Target with my American Express gift card I recieved for Christmas and purchase Bob & I a new crock pot. I have a stew cooking right now for dinner later tonight. I got all my grocery shopping done yesterday and all the laundry done the day before that, so I really don't have much of anythng else to do.

I suppose today would be a good day to sit and try to remember how to make "granny squares". I bought some yarn and crochet hooks last week on the assumption that I still remembered how to make a baby afghan. For the life of me, I'm struggling to remember how I used to make those squares. I almost have it so it won't be long before I'm crocheting again. If and when I get it figured out, I'll be sure to get a photo to share of the progress.

Starting Monday, I'll be back working on the basement project everyday again. If the weather ever does get cold around here, I won't have to worry about working in a cold damp basement since there is a wood burning stove in the fireplace down there that works super great. it's nice when it's really cold outside, you can stay toasty warm inside with that thing.

Well I guess I need to go find something to do. Can't sit here all day.

Just another fine January day of SUNSHINE!!!

Nothing was wrong with my car yesterday. They put it on the scope only for that to tell them that the car had resently stalled....which it had when I tried to drive it too soon in the cold without letting the engine warm up a little. They cleaned the throttle block (whatever that is) and did the oil change and tire rotation and take a good look at the brakes like we wanted them to do. $101 later and the car is good as new (for a 10 and 1/2 year old car). I'm happy anyway.

High of 61 degrees here today and let me tell you that the sun is shining brightly. Why then am I in the house at 11:30am and not outside doing something???? Well, that's because I woke up with a terrible migrane/sinus headache at the bridge of my nose extending to the top of my head. As soon as Bob left for work I took some Excedrin Migrane tablets and laid back down with a pillow over my head for an hour. Good thing that wrong number called on the house phone or there could be a great possiblility that I'd still be sleeping. Instead I got up and cleaned myself up and straigtened up the kitchen. I even swept and mopped the floor. (as good as you can get with a stupid swiffer mop). Going to the grocery store is about the only thing major on my list today. I believe a trip out to Sam's Club is in order since we seem to out of several items. ( I say that now, but have been known to change my mind......the effects of too much caffeine in the excedrin).

Bob should be home for lunch soon. I suppose I should mosey on out to the kitchen and see what I can throw together for us for lunch. Too bad the housekeeper is off today...that's her job! Oh...wait...we don't have a housekeeper....guess that's my job after all. Oh well, better go get started on a list for the store then see what's for lunch.

So now we are 3 days into the New Year and............

I feel like an insomniac. We stayed up late for 2 nights in a row and I had trouble sleeping the entire night through last night. My mind seems to working overtime worrying about stupid shit as usual. Ever get the feeling you should slap yourself out of it before someone else does it for you? (that's just me trying to have some humor way too early in the morning)

So during the day on New Year's Eve, I was driving home from a short shopping trip when I noticed my service engine soon light came on. Everytime that happens on a car, you tend to think it's the worse case senerio, however, the car is running just fine. You'd never know anything was "wrong". I have an appointment this morning to drop the car off and get it serviced. I'm getting the oil changed and the tires rotated and they are going to check out this service light and see what's up with that. I know sometimes they come on if you don't have the gas cap as tight as it needs to be. So we'll see shortly I guess.

I have taken some time off over the Holiday's from working on the basement renovation project I've been doing. I need to get back over there and into a good working routine again. I need to be bringing in some money!!

The weather has been really weird here for quite some time now. I keep looking at Ohio's weather too and even if I was still living there it would be really weird to me. It's way too warm for this time of the year. I keep thinking we are going to really pay for this good weather. I keep thinking we are going to get hit with a blizzard or something close to that soon.

Guess I'm just blabbing about nothing here this morning so I better hop off of here and get ready to go.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!!!!!!!


Hard to believe it's New Years Day when the birds were chirping at the crack of dawn and the temp will be a high of 60 degrees today!!! Sure beats the hell out of the alternative. It's a little gloomy out this morning, but it's a good day for that when I'm sure 90% of the population around here is in bed still with hangovers. We had a nice New Year's Eve party with Bob's Brother and his partner and a couple of friends of ours. We started our party at 6pm and had a blst laughing all evening and being silly. We also had our Christmas gift exchange with Bob's Brother Steven and John lastnight since we were all apart on Christmas. We recieved an Epson Photo Maker and and deskjet f380 printer/scanner/copier . I have already been up and playing with my new toy and I LOVE IT!!! We haven't hooked up the deskjet yet. It's going to be so cool to be able to make my own photos from home. I think that was way too cool of Bob's Brother to get that for me. He knows I love photography and now that Bob bought me the new zoom lens and I have a photomaker, I'm well on my way to really enjoying photography alot more!!!

I don't know about any of you, but I don't make New Year's Resolutions. They just get broken anyway. I just want to live one day at a time and enjoy each one to the fullest. I'm going to start this day off by going back to sleep for a few more hours...LOL.

How was your New Year's Eve????