Lotsa things from the weekend
2006-12-18 - 9:01 p.m.

My weekend is almost over. Back to work tomorrow. The bad news is, I probably won't be taking any extra time off for Christmas, but the good news is I don't mind so much. I actually took about 15 minutes of audio to transcribe today because I felt another boredom headache coming on, and that worked out great. I never got a headache, plus I earned a little extra money. Sounds like a win-win situation!

N was over again today doing more stuff to help us get the house ready to sell. In case you're wondering who the heck this N person is, he is a young guy that B initially hired to work at the store part-time, and ironically he's been doing more work here at our house. B and I just aren't capable of doing all the things that needed to be done around here - painting outside and inside, various yard stuff, etc. - so N has been coming over almost every Monday. Now he's almost finished with all the major projects. He painted most of the outside of the house, and painted the ceilings in the den, computer room and bathroom. He's also done stuff like mow the law, rake leaves, trim the bushes and other assorted chores the B and I don't wanna do.

So today he finished raking the leaves in the front yard and also finished touching up the ceiling in the bathroom. His last big project is going to be helping us move. The plan is to have him and a friend drive B's Camry to Arizona (we're going to sell my car) while B, the cats and I fly there. We'll try to coordinate it so we all arrive at roughly the same time, then N can help us move into our new place there. B has invited N to stay a while after that too, and we'll go the Grand Canyon and do some other sightseeing with him before he leaves.

When I was his age, I would've loved to help someone like us move and get to drive across the country with a friend. We're going to be paying for the gas and his hotel rooms and whatnot, so it's kind of like he gets a free vacation. Hopefully it will be fun for him.

So N came over early in the day to do his stuff, and after he left B and I went to the liquor store to get stuff for the party. I thought it would be fun to get some kind of Christmas-ey swizel sticks or something fun to garnish the drinks with, and they had absolutely nothing at the liquor store. I guess later on this week I'll go over to the party supply store and see what I can find.

Yesterday we did our grocery shopping and I got everything I needed for this year's batch of Bliss Mix. It included chocolate covered peanuts, Christmas tree pretzels (yogurt covered), red, green and white malted milkballs, chocolate cordials (chocolates with cherry cordial centers YUM) and some kind of chewy berry-things. I don't remember what they were called. Last year I got way too much stuff and ended up with all kinds of leftovers, so this year I reigned myself in a little and got almost just the right amount. I had a few Christmas tree pretzels left, but that's no big deal. B's coworkers better freaking like this stuff. Some of these things weren't cheap.

Last night was the Surviv0r finale and I always enjoy the finale and the reunion show the best, so I was really excited to watch it. I was very pleased that Yul won, but I would've been happy with Ozzie winning, too. I thought they both deserved it. Yul was one of my favorite contestants from all the seasons of Surviv0r because he seemed like a genuinely humble guy, and very smart! I love the questions that Jeff Pr0bst asks during the reunion show. He cracks me up when someone is beating around the bush and he says, "Okay, is it yes or no?" Jeff cuts right to the chase.

I suddenly started feeling a sore throat tonight, a few hours ago. How in the world I could be getting sick, I have no idea, because I never go anywhere! Late in the afternoon I got on the treadmill and almost as soon as I got started I felt really tired, like I'd already walked a couple miles, and I was thinking, what is wrong with me? I should've just stopped right there, but I pushed myself to walk about a mile, and then I felt awful. Now I know I probably have a cold or something that's dragging me down. But I started using Zic@m as soon as I felt that sore throat, so I should be feeling better within a day or two. I know I've probably bragged on this stuff before, but it is amazingly good at getting rid of colds. If you start taking it at the first sign of a cold, the cold will never really develop and you'll be over it before it ever starts. Even if you start taking it after the cold is going full-blast, it will shorten the duration of the cold. I'm not a salesperson for this stuff, really. It just works!

Unfortunately, I don't feel so hot right now. Mostly because my throat is sore and swollen, but it should be long overwith before our party this coming weekend.

B is moving into Session 16 in his medical transcription studies. Only two more to go after that and he'll be done. I think it's still undetermined at this point if he'll get a job before we move or not. From what I hear, people who graduate from this program are in high demand and the companies come to YOU to hire you, so it's possible that B could get a job right away but not necessarily start working until after we move, if the company will agree to that. And I would think that if they want him bad enough, they'll agree to it. But I don't know. We'll see. B has talked about wanting to take a couple months off after we move, so that might be harder to negotiate.

I got my bathroom mostly cleaned up yesterday. It wasn't quite is filthy as I thought it was, but I still want to mop the floor. The worst part was the sink. No matter how hard I try to keep my hair out of the sink, it gets clogged with it eventually, so I had to use some Drain0. Probably nobody will even need to use my bathroom, but it's still nice to get it clean. I also washed the bathmats/rugs in both bathrooms because they were looking a bit scuzzy. Still got more stuff that needs to be done around the house before Saturday, but I'll work on that during the week.

Miki, who is the biggest scaredy-cat I've ever seen, actually came out of her hiding spot in the spare bedroom while N was here today and she let N pet her. That's the first time I've ever seen her let anyone besides B or me pet her. I'm hoping this is a sign that she's starting to chill out a little, because if she's this scared in her own home, she's going to be severely traumatized when it comes time to move. This is a cat who runs and hides when a noisy truck goes by outside. She's really sweet and I love her to death, but she's a total spaz. Just gotta hope that she and Spice can recover from this moving experience once it's over. And for that matter, I hope B and I can recover from it, too! It's going to be traumatic for all of us, but hopefully it'll all be worth it in the end.

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