Stuff here in my neck of the woods
2008-01-08 - 5:54 p.m.

I really feel like I need to put something here since it's been a while, so here goes. I'll start with today and work backward.

Today I worked, as usual. Nothing very interesting there. B and I took our daily walk this afternoon and it was warm, but cloudy and very humid.

Last night I got Bl@ke Lewis's (from American Idol) new album called Audio D@ydream and B and I listened to it together and both liked it. I've only listened to it that one time so far, so I can't say much more about it yet. I also got Kelly Cl@rkson's latest album, but I've only had a chance to listen to first couple songs so far.

I've been burning a lot of DVDs lately. There are a bunch of year-end musical varierty shows and award shows on in Japan and I've been downloading them and then burning them to DVD so I can watch them on our big TV. I figured out how we can watch DVDs full-screen last week, which is something I figured could be done, but I'd never really tried very hard to figure it out. So it's been even more fun watching my DVDs now. I have one more show to watch that finished downloading this morning, so I'll be burning that to DVD overnight tonight. It takes usually 4-6 hours to burn, so it's not practical/possible to do it during the day.

One other thing I burned to DVD and B and I watched together recently was Ayumi's annual Countdown Live concert. We were surprised at how awful she sounded and I can honestly say it was her worst concert DVD ever. I found out a day or two after that she made a statement on her website saying that she's completely deaf in her left ear and it's inoperable. That's really sad news, and no wonder she sounded so bad in that concert. I'm really bummed for her.

B found out from our realtor that people who've been to see the house are concerned about the den; the fact that it looks small and cramped and the very dated-looking paneling. So it looks like we have yet more work to do on this house. Next weekend we're planning to paint the paneling and rearrange some furniture so the den looks less cramped, including moving our big TV into the living room. That will be a big change for us since we don't normally spend a lot of time in the living room, but the good news is there's plenty of room in the living room. The bad news is, it won't be as easy to heat with the space heater because there are no doors we can close, like with the den.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but we've been keeping our thermostat set low and using space heaters in the computer room when we're working during the day, then using one in the den when we're in there in the evening. The plan was to save money, and it has worked, though it's inconvenient at times. The livingroom is open to the front hallway, so it'll be harder to stay warm in there when we're watching TV in the evening. I'm hoping that we won't have to do it for very long, though, because hopefully the house will sell after we make these changes and we can MOVE.

The guy who lives behind us had some guys working on his shed this past weekend, but they didn't get much done it seems. It practically looks the same. I think they put a few more pieces of tar paper on the roof and that's it. And of course, the radio tower next door is still up in their driveway.

I've been having some real trouble with anxiety lately and I'm not sure why. I guess it's related to moving and stuff. It started about a year ago with this tight feeling in my chest and difficulty breathing and it kind of comes and goes, though lately it's been more coming than going. I've been thinking of going to the doctor about it, but I just got off Wellbutr!n and I really don't want to be put on another antidepressant. For now, I've been taking my pain meds when I feel this chest tightness. I know that's not what it's for, but it's the only thing that helps. Then I feel guilty for taking it and feel more anxiety because of that, no doubt. >:(

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut like I had it last summer. It's really been bothering me lately. I've noticed a lot more gray in my hair during the past 6 months or so. My skin looks pretty good, though, except for the acne scarring. I've been thinking of trying one of those at-home peels or something for that.

Well, better get some dinner going, I guess. I'm going to switch over to Bl0gger here pretty soon, whenever I get a new template made. I'm working on that.

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