Updates 'n' stuff
It's been a hectic week, so I haven't had much of a chance to update. Or knit. Bah.
Friday I was home sick with the flu. I think that's what it was at least. I had a fever of 101, I was dizzy, my throat really hurt, and I was achy all over. I ended up sleeping all day, except for an hour around lunch time. Then I got up at about 7. James was working until 11, so Sandra offered to go pick up Elizabeth and let her spend the night there. Ah, what bliss! I then proceeded to spend a pleasurable couple of hours on the phone (those in the peanut gallery, I don't want to hear all the 'but you hate the phone' comments, kkthx) with a friend who needed a comforting... ear? He's a singer, so has a nice voice to listen to. And he's -quite- cute. Lives in DC area, so we have something at least vaguely in common. Did I mention he was cute? *sigh* Ah, to be single again. ;)
We went over to Sandra's on Saturday morning to pick up Elizabeth after her sleep-over. We convinced them to come to a pumpkin farm with us (I'd never been to one before). There were hot pretzles and coco, animals to pet (goats and bunnies), a hay maze (that I had to physically drag Elizabeth out of a couple of times so we could do other stuff), and, of course, pumpkins! You could pick your own, and they had some picked already, and there were a lot of specialty pumpkins and gourds. It was all very cool. We didn't go on the hay ride, though. Elizabeth was distracted by the horses. They had horse rides, and Elizabeth declared that she wanted to go on one. James said no. Elizabeth said yes. James said no. Elizabeth declared she -was- going on one. So she got a little helmet, and hopped up on a horse. James made me go in and walk around the ring with her, but she had a blast. She wanted to ride on the brown one because it looked like 'auntie Anne's horse' so she got on that one. I think she would have stayed up there all day if we'd let her. And the owner of the farm gave her a tiny little pumpkin for being so cute. Then we had a quick lunch of fast food (I had a baked potato, I was SO good) and decided we were going to go around and look at some cars. We've been thinking of buying a second car for some time now... just a little beater for me to tool around town in - back and forth to work and such. We'd decided that we could do one of 3 things, with the money we've saved up over the last couple of months:
a) Buy a cheap used car and keep our Vue payment thus only having one payment
b) Pay off the Vue and get a car with a smaller monthly payment
c) Trade in the Vue and put the down payment on a bigger vehicle (van for instance) which would reduce us to one vehicle, but it would be a
nice one.
We set off to look at cars. All the dealerships were on the other side of the divided highway, so when we got to the Saturn dealership on our side, we decided to pop in there first. We looked at the van first, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I told James that coming to Saturn first was a mistake, because I love Saturns and it would be hard to drag me out. We looked at the Aura next, and I didn't much care for it, despite its cool name. Then I got into an Ion, and didn't want to get out. Of course, I've been in love with the Ion for some time now, so it wasn't too surprising. It was beautiful too, a nice dark grey (Storm Grey! hehe) and a 5-speed, auto doors and windows... *sigh* And then they started in with the 'loyalty bonus' and the 'we'll match your down payment' and stuff like that. So, um, we bought it. :D So now I have a car. And I love it. It's so cute.
Sunday we spent mostly driving around in the new car. :D At least for the morning. Then we took Elizabeth for her first haircut at a salon. She did really well. Apparently I hadn't messed up her hair too much cutting it, because the hairdresser didn't cut anything any differently than I had been. And it didn't look too crooked at all. Then Duncan and Preston came over for a visit in the afternoon. The kids and I did a few 'art projects' and watched a movie (complete with popcorn and drinks) while I folded laundry. I think the guys were upstairs watching football and playing WoW. I know they ordered pizza at some point, but I didn't eat any of it.
I don't remember much of Monday, but Tuesday was spent decorating the office conference rooms for the Halowe'en party from 3-5 (they spent about $500 on decorations and food and stuff - and it took us 6 hours to set up for 2 hour party - gah!). Me, cardamom_23 and 4-5 others are the de facto entertainment. We bagged up treats for the kids, who also got ittle pumpkin cups and tiny pumpkins with small candies in them, and little foam masks, hung strands and strands of spider web, put up foam stickers, glass wall decorations, solid wall decorations, climbed ladders, crawled under tables, generally made a mess of things. There were games with little cheap prizes, face painting (me) and engraving of names onto dog tags (also me), a tent with creepy hands that came out and grabbed kids and gave prizes (he 'coughed up hairballs' that were stuffed animals and stuff basically). We had a 'shoot your manager' for the adults that was a huge hit. Maybe next year I will read Tarot cards or something. :D On the way home (I was driving with Elizabeth) I lost a contact and had to pull over to the side of the road and call James to get me. We were supposed to go out with Sandra and the kids but after the contact incident, we got home so late that we just ended up going ourselves. James stayed home and handed out candy with the neighbours, and I walked the route. Elizabeth met up with a very cute little girl named McKenna who had a very cute dad, so at least I had someone to chat with while the girls knocked on doors. They were pretty cute! And it sounds like the girls will be getting together on Saturday. Mary Beth and Jerrica are coming down too, so we can to go to the RenFaire, but we will see.
Yesterday was just busy busy. Meetings, and then cardamom_23 and I escaped to go to the health food store for lunch (I am now down 25 pounds, and into my smallest jeans, so yay for that!) Then I drove home with Elizabeth, we went out for dinner with Sandra and Robert and their kids, then I went home and slept. It was so nice.
The builders are coming in a few days to rip up the badly epoxied kitchen floor, so we need to spend some time this weekend looking at tile to replace it. *sigh* My poor nerves. James is also muttering about getting the hardwood floors done in the living room while we are both still employed. He may be working until the end of the year. I only hope I still am by then.
Friday I was home sick with the flu. I think that's what it was at least. I had a fever of 101, I was dizzy, my throat really hurt, and I was achy all over. I ended up sleeping all day, except for an hour around lunch time. Then I got up at about 7. James was working until 11, so Sandra offered to go pick up Elizabeth and let her spend the night there. Ah, what bliss! I then proceeded to spend a pleasurable couple of hours on the phone (those in the peanut gallery, I don't want to hear all the 'but you hate the phone' comments, kkthx) with a friend who needed a comforting... ear? He's a singer, so has a nice voice to listen to. And he's -quite- cute. Lives in DC area, so we have something at least vaguely in common. Did I mention he was cute? *sigh* Ah, to be single again. ;)
We went over to Sandra's on Saturday morning to pick up Elizabeth after her sleep-over. We convinced them to come to a pumpkin farm with us (I'd never been to one before). There were hot pretzles and coco, animals to pet (goats and bunnies), a hay maze (that I had to physically drag Elizabeth out of a couple of times so we could do other stuff), and, of course, pumpkins! You could pick your own, and they had some picked already, and there were a lot of specialty pumpkins and gourds. It was all very cool. We didn't go on the hay ride, though. Elizabeth was distracted by the horses. They had horse rides, and Elizabeth declared that she wanted to go on one. James said no. Elizabeth said yes. James said no. Elizabeth declared she -was- going on one. So she got a little helmet, and hopped up on a horse. James made me go in and walk around the ring with her, but she had a blast. She wanted to ride on the brown one because it looked like 'auntie Anne's horse' so she got on that one. I think she would have stayed up there all day if we'd let her. And the owner of the farm gave her a tiny little pumpkin for being so cute. Then we had a quick lunch of fast food (I had a baked potato, I was SO good) and decided we were going to go around and look at some cars. We've been thinking of buying a second car for some time now... just a little beater for me to tool around town in - back and forth to work and such. We'd decided that we could do one of 3 things, with the money we've saved up over the last couple of months:
a) Buy a cheap used car and keep our Vue payment thus only having one payment
b) Pay off the Vue and get a car with a smaller monthly payment
c) Trade in the Vue and put the down payment on a bigger vehicle (van for instance) which would reduce us to one vehicle, but it would be a
nice one.
We set off to look at cars. All the dealerships were on the other side of the divided highway, so when we got to the Saturn dealership on our side, we decided to pop in there first. We looked at the van first, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I told James that coming to Saturn first was a mistake, because I love Saturns and it would be hard to drag me out. We looked at the Aura next, and I didn't much care for it, despite its cool name. Then I got into an Ion, and didn't want to get out. Of course, I've been in love with the Ion for some time now, so it wasn't too surprising. It was beautiful too, a nice dark grey (Storm Grey! hehe) and a 5-speed, auto doors and windows... *sigh* And then they started in with the 'loyalty bonus' and the 'we'll match your down payment' and stuff like that. So, um, we bought it. :D So now I have a car. And I love it. It's so cute.
Sunday we spent mostly driving around in the new car. :D At least for the morning. Then we took Elizabeth for her first haircut at a salon. She did really well. Apparently I hadn't messed up her hair too much cutting it, because the hairdresser didn't cut anything any differently than I had been. And it didn't look too crooked at all. Then Duncan and Preston came over for a visit in the afternoon. The kids and I did a few 'art projects' and watched a movie (complete with popcorn and drinks) while I folded laundry. I think the guys were upstairs watching football and playing WoW. I know they ordered pizza at some point, but I didn't eat any of it.
I don't remember much of Monday, but Tuesday was spent decorating the office conference rooms for the Halowe'en party from 3-5 (they spent about $500 on decorations and food and stuff - and it took us 6 hours to set up for 2 hour party - gah!). Me, cardamom_23 and 4-5 others are the de facto entertainment. We bagged up treats for the kids, who also got ittle pumpkin cups and tiny pumpkins with small candies in them, and little foam masks, hung strands and strands of spider web, put up foam stickers, glass wall decorations, solid wall decorations, climbed ladders, crawled under tables, generally made a mess of things. There were games with little cheap prizes, face painting (me) and engraving of names onto dog tags (also me), a tent with creepy hands that came out and grabbed kids and gave prizes (he 'coughed up hairballs' that were stuffed animals and stuff basically). We had a 'shoot your manager' for the adults that was a huge hit. Maybe next year I will read Tarot cards or something. :D On the way home (I was driving with Elizabeth) I lost a contact and had to pull over to the side of the road and call James to get me. We were supposed to go out with Sandra and the kids but after the contact incident, we got home so late that we just ended up going ourselves. James stayed home and handed out candy with the neighbours, and I walked the route. Elizabeth met up with a very cute little girl named McKenna who had a very cute dad, so at least I had someone to chat with while the girls knocked on doors. They were pretty cute! And it sounds like the girls will be getting together on Saturday. Mary Beth and Jerrica are coming down too, so we can to go to the RenFaire, but we will see.
Yesterday was just busy busy. Meetings, and then cardamom_23 and I escaped to go to the health food store for lunch (I am now down 25 pounds, and into my smallest jeans, so yay for that!) Then I drove home with Elizabeth, we went out for dinner with Sandra and Robert and their kids, then I went home and slept. It was so nice.
The builders are coming in a few days to rip up the badly epoxied kitchen floor, so we need to spend some time this weekend looking at tile to replace it. *sigh* My poor nerves. James is also muttering about getting the hardwood floors done in the living room while we are both still employed. He may be working until the end of the year. I only hope I still am by then.