The prodigal blogger returns w/ a busy, good, productive weekend!
Well, at least it's still January! ;) I say that because even though I don't do "New Year's Resolutions" per se, I do like to lessen bad habits and start encouraging good habits during the first month of the new year. Of course, it's NEVER too late to make a positive change, and there's NO such thing as trying too many times to make a positive change. As the line from the Blues Traveler song goes: "There's no such thing as a failure who keeps trying!" :">
So, I'm going to try to get into the swing of blogging again. And now is as good a time as any to start! This past weekend was very busy and very productive. It also had some very fun elements too. On Friday the 25th was my monthly Bingo Belles game. Jenny was this month's host. It was a very well-attended game. Along with Jenny & Kaitlyn, and me (duh) it also comprised Shawn (my hubby, although I think everyone reading this knows I'm married by now!), Liz & her honey Danny, Becky S. (w/ kids Andrew & Misty, tho only Andrew played), Lisa M. (w/ son Vinny), and Margaret (w/ son Alex, but he didn't play). We missed Coleen, Becky R., Ina, Karrie & Jeri and hope to see them at a future game. It was a very funny and fun time, as usual -- especially when I started laughing hysterically when the kids sent Kaitlyn's squeefully cute Zhu Zhu Pets dibbing around and down the hallway! LOL! All sorts of gifts & gift cards made their way from winner to winner, although Jenny won most of the gifts at evening's end. However, I was lucky to come away w/ a super-festive cupcake-themed bag of gifts! :D We don't always have guys & kids at bingo, but Jenny said all of the above were welcome. Most of the Bingo Belles have boyfriends or husbands but not all of them could make it.
This has nothing to do with bingo but it does have to do with January 25. That was the date, back in 2010, that my pet rats Blueberry & Jellybean passed away. They were blue hooded brothers who I adopted from a "foster mom" volunteer for the Bay Area nonprofit Rattie Ratz, which I highly recommend if you're looking to adopt rats, surrender a surprise litter, or just learn more about rats. Berry and Jelly were typical big male rats who were "squishy" not just physically but also in terms of their temperament -- they were very laidback and mellow. Not to mention silly, sweet and smart, just like all pet rattums! :) They lived to be 2 years & 9 months, which is about average. Let's just say most rats never live to see their 4th birthday. :( I think the average is 2.5 to 3 years old.
On Saturday, Shawn & I went out for breakfast at Breakers Cafe, a mom-and-pop eatery here in Redwood City. We then got down to work! We spent quite some time in the garage, going thru a lot of our collective stuff stored out there. We threw away some things and filled several boxes/bins of things to donate to Savers, part of a cool thrift shop store chain that I love to shop at (you can really find some treasures there), although we did not stop to shop this time. Actually, Shawn threw away and gave away more than I did. I'm not discounting what I did, especially since parting with almost anything is EXTREMELY hard for me. :( I just wanted to give credit to Shawn for how much he did. Anyhoo, it felt good to donate so much stuff, and it felt good to free up space in the garage. Our next project was to pull out all the kitchen storage containers in the bottom pantry, which included ones made by Tupperware, Ziploc, Rubbermaid, Glad & Pyrex. I couldn't believe how much came out of there! :O We set aside some duplicates and/or less-good ones to donate on a future visit to Savers (or another thrift shop), and then reorganized the rest. Now it's SO much easier to find the right container when needed! Our FINAL project for Saturday was taking out all of Shawn's first aid supplies from the hall closet. We unfortunately had to throw a lot away, due to being expired or just too old for good use. What remained we reorganized and consolidated into one big bin. Hopefully we'll never have to use more than the band-aids, but there's a lot of other important and useful supplies in there. The idea to tackle all three of these projects was Shawn's idea, and he also did a good job of helping keep us in track. I have a very difficult time staying on track with chores like this (or almost any type of chore or project, stupid ADHD) so I really have to give props to Shawn! <3
On Sunday I did a lot of editing/proofreading. After 2+ years I'm still freelancing for the awesome Gannett Healthcare Group, my former employer from whom I was laid off in April 2009. (It's headquartered in Illinois & Virginia but I worked in the San Jose satellite office). I'm sure everyone knows this by now but I edit/proof the continuing education (CE) courses (a.k. a. modules) that GHG publishes in its various magazines and on its websites. Nurses, PTs, OTs, SLPs, dietitians & various other healthcare professionals pay to earn CE units via these courses; new ones are always being added to the very comprehensive library, and older ones are often being updated. This makes for a fairly steady stream of freelance work for me, for which I am so very grateful! :D The CE managing editor emailed me four courses on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday evening I had already completed two of the four and emailed them back to her! Today I completed a third and am working on the fourth and final one. And I wouldn't be surprised if she sends me another batch some time this week!
I can't even recall if we visited Grocery Outlet on Saturday or Sunday (how embarrassing!) but I'm mentioning it because it always amazes me at some of the UNCOMMON varieties/flavors of very COMMON products you can find at that store, and also Big Lots. These products include Pop Tarts, potato &/or corn chips, vitamin waters/sports drinks, cereals, boxed dinner kits (involving pasta, rice, etc.), baking mixes, and chocolates/candies. And I love it! As one of my friends said when I posted this as a Facebook status update -- it's like going on a scavenger hunt every time you shop there. She meant that in a good way, and I agree! :)
OH! I just remembered something else in the vein of making new starts in the new year. I'm participating in the LJ community bday_packages once again! The number of members has really dwindled over the past year or so, but hopefully the community will expand. I was AGOG at how many cards and gifts I was flooded with several years ago, back when B-Day Packages had a large number of participants. I also LOVE sending surprises to others. You dont' have to spend a lot of money or time to participate; just look at the surveys of the folks with upcoming birthdays, see what they like/collect/etc. and send them a little surprise. I love this concept so much so PLEASE consider joining. Even if you only send cards and not gifts, it really does make a difference to people to receive random acts of kindness for their birthdays. :)
I think I was going to write something else here, but I think I've already written WAY enough for one entry! *blush* But I'll be back within a few days to write again! Yay for making fresh starts!!
P.S. I forgot to say that on Sunday, Shawn & I went to Aaron Brothers Art & Framing to check out their sale on pretty much ALL frames (buy one regular price, get one for 1 cent)! We found several cool frames to use w/ our wedding photos; I even found a 5-sided photo cube as part of the sale! Yes, I know, those are very 1970s, but I've always loved them. The sale is happening thru February 1st if you want to take advantage of it.
So, I'm going to try to get into the swing of blogging again. And now is as good a time as any to start! This past weekend was very busy and very productive. It also had some very fun elements too. On Friday the 25th was my monthly Bingo Belles game. Jenny was this month's host. It was a very well-attended game. Along with Jenny & Kaitlyn, and me (duh) it also comprised Shawn (my hubby, although I think everyone reading this knows I'm married by now!), Liz & her honey Danny, Becky S. (w/ kids Andrew & Misty, tho only Andrew played), Lisa M. (w/ son Vinny), and Margaret (w/ son Alex, but he didn't play). We missed Coleen, Becky R., Ina, Karrie & Jeri and hope to see them at a future game. It was a very funny and fun time, as usual -- especially when I started laughing hysterically when the kids sent Kaitlyn's squeefully cute Zhu Zhu Pets dibbing around and down the hallway! LOL! All sorts of gifts & gift cards made their way from winner to winner, although Jenny won most of the gifts at evening's end. However, I was lucky to come away w/ a super-festive cupcake-themed bag of gifts! :D We don't always have guys & kids at bingo, but Jenny said all of the above were welcome. Most of the Bingo Belles have boyfriends or husbands but not all of them could make it.
This has nothing to do with bingo but it does have to do with January 25. That was the date, back in 2010, that my pet rats Blueberry & Jellybean passed away. They were blue hooded brothers who I adopted from a "foster mom" volunteer for the Bay Area nonprofit Rattie Ratz, which I highly recommend if you're looking to adopt rats, surrender a surprise litter, or just learn more about rats. Berry and Jelly were typical big male rats who were "squishy" not just physically but also in terms of their temperament -- they were very laidback and mellow. Not to mention silly, sweet and smart, just like all pet rattums! :) They lived to be 2 years & 9 months, which is about average. Let's just say most rats never live to see their 4th birthday. :( I think the average is 2.5 to 3 years old.
On Saturday, Shawn & I went out for breakfast at Breakers Cafe, a mom-and-pop eatery here in Redwood City. We then got down to work! We spent quite some time in the garage, going thru a lot of our collective stuff stored out there. We threw away some things and filled several boxes/bins of things to donate to Savers, part of a cool thrift shop store chain that I love to shop at (you can really find some treasures there), although we did not stop to shop this time. Actually, Shawn threw away and gave away more than I did. I'm not discounting what I did, especially since parting with almost anything is EXTREMELY hard for me. :( I just wanted to give credit to Shawn for how much he did. Anyhoo, it felt good to donate so much stuff, and it felt good to free up space in the garage. Our next project was to pull out all the kitchen storage containers in the bottom pantry, which included ones made by Tupperware, Ziploc, Rubbermaid, Glad & Pyrex. I couldn't believe how much came out of there! :O We set aside some duplicates and/or less-good ones to donate on a future visit to Savers (or another thrift shop), and then reorganized the rest. Now it's SO much easier to find the right container when needed! Our FINAL project for Saturday was taking out all of Shawn's first aid supplies from the hall closet. We unfortunately had to throw a lot away, due to being expired or just too old for good use. What remained we reorganized and consolidated into one big bin. Hopefully we'll never have to use more than the band-aids, but there's a lot of other important and useful supplies in there. The idea to tackle all three of these projects was Shawn's idea, and he also did a good job of helping keep us in track. I have a very difficult time staying on track with chores like this (or almost any type of chore or project, stupid ADHD) so I really have to give props to Shawn! <3
On Sunday I did a lot of editing/proofreading. After 2+ years I'm still freelancing for the awesome Gannett Healthcare Group, my former employer from whom I was laid off in April 2009. (It's headquartered in Illinois & Virginia but I worked in the San Jose satellite office). I'm sure everyone knows this by now but I edit/proof the continuing education (CE) courses (a.k. a. modules) that GHG publishes in its various magazines and on its websites. Nurses, PTs, OTs, SLPs, dietitians & various other healthcare professionals pay to earn CE units via these courses; new ones are always being added to the very comprehensive library, and older ones are often being updated. This makes for a fairly steady stream of freelance work for me, for which I am so very grateful! :D The CE managing editor emailed me four courses on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday evening I had already completed two of the four and emailed them back to her! Today I completed a third and am working on the fourth and final one. And I wouldn't be surprised if she sends me another batch some time this week!
I can't even recall if we visited Grocery Outlet on Saturday or Sunday (how embarrassing!) but I'm mentioning it because it always amazes me at some of the UNCOMMON varieties/flavors of very COMMON products you can find at that store, and also Big Lots. These products include Pop Tarts, potato &/or corn chips, vitamin waters/sports drinks, cereals, boxed dinner kits (involving pasta, rice, etc.), baking mixes, and chocolates/candies. And I love it! As one of my friends said when I posted this as a Facebook status update -- it's like going on a scavenger hunt every time you shop there. She meant that in a good way, and I agree! :)
OH! I just remembered something else in the vein of making new starts in the new year. I'm participating in the LJ community bday_packages once again! The number of members has really dwindled over the past year or so, but hopefully the community will expand. I was AGOG at how many cards and gifts I was flooded with several years ago, back when B-Day Packages had a large number of participants. I also LOVE sending surprises to others. You dont' have to spend a lot of money or time to participate; just look at the surveys of the folks with upcoming birthdays, see what they like/collect/etc. and send them a little surprise. I love this concept so much so PLEASE consider joining. Even if you only send cards and not gifts, it really does make a difference to people to receive random acts of kindness for their birthdays. :)
I think I was going to write something else here, but I think I've already written WAY enough for one entry! *blush* But I'll be back within a few days to write again! Yay for making fresh starts!!
P.S. I forgot to say that on Sunday, Shawn & I went to Aaron Brothers Art & Framing to check out their sale on pretty much ALL frames (buy one regular price, get one for 1 cent)! We found several cool frames to use w/ our wedding photos; I even found a 5-sided photo cube as part of the sale! Yes, I know, those are very 1970s, but I've always loved them. The sale is happening thru February 1st if you want to take advantage of it.