It was a dark and stormy night.

Thunder, lightning and mega rain tonight! Love it! I have all the lights out except my laptop (with surge protector on!) and the dogs are at my feet. It is cool; makes a great ambiance for the storm!

WOW, I had some drama today. (I HATE drama.) Remember that guy I turned down for a date? (I think I blogged about it.) Anyway, he caught me online tonight and struck up an instant message chat. It started out OK, but then he got all pissed off that I turned him down! He actually cyber-yelled at me, got all huffy and signed off. Isn't that sad? Sheesh. I'm thinking I made the right choice there. LOL!  In other news, I was asked out by a different man (the one East of the Mountains that I mentioned) and I said "Yes!". That's right! Crazydogmama has a date! As much as I can tell so far, he is a kind, gentle, intelligent man who writes and expresses himself well, is super sweet and been through similar circumstances as myself. He is both a part time Firefighter and EMT. Anyway, not this weekend because of Easter, but the weekend after we are meeting for coffee. I'm looking forward to it!

I went in late today to work because of all the hours I worked this weekend, then went home early to take a nap. Gotta like that! Of course, now I'm wide awake. Sometimes I wonder about my brain or lack of one.

My day. Not that you care.

It's funny, who cares about some stranger's day? But I read lots of blogs and personally LOVE reading about other people's days! It is a strange phenomenon I guess, but I think it is cool to see how other people get through life. You get ideas, laugh, cry and empathize. You get to know people. Being that I mostly work long hours and live alone, the internet has been a great tool for me to communicate with people and not isolate.

Today I worked pretty much all day on the computer. I got a little frustrated because everything I tried to work on had some sort of problem, but I was productive, and I feel good about my progress. Hopefully I scored some points with the big dogs who can give me more money! I broke down and ordered a pizza and got to expense it to the company, gotta love THAT! It gave me a major tummy ache though, and it came back up. GROSS. I guess now that I have been eating super healthy for 7 or so weeks now, my system rejects grease and fat. Yay? I made some tea and ate one of my Bistro MD meals and I feel fine now. Been intermittently doing laundry, did the dishes and was going to mow the lawn but it started raining. Thank God. Now I'm catching up on blogging, emails and am actually going to finish my ironing before bed. A year ago, I would have never done all of that in one day! Go ME! I didn't get my exercise in today, though. Bad me. I'm going to run stairs tomorrow at work though with my friend Jenny. There is a big stairwell that goes down to the parking garage and we like to run up down until we feel dizzy. Silly, huh?

Anyway, gotta get to the ironing and get some shut-eye. Sorry for the boring blogging this weekend. Hopefully something exciting will happen this week to post about.

Twist of Thinking

At first, I thought "This weekend sucks". Yesterday I cleaned out the garage and made a huge dump run, then spent the next four hours trying to sleep a headache off, then worked until 2 am doing work from home on my laptop because we have part of a project launching on Monday. Today, I have to do some more work from home and then do laundry/vacuuming, etc. But then I started really thinking about things and changed my mind about my feelings on not having "fun" on the weekend. I am blessed to have a job, and a GOOD one. Most people I know right now are either unemployed or struggling big time with money. I have a roof over my head that I'm able to pay for. Three homes in my neighborhood just went into foreclosure. When I started thinking like that, my whole attitude changed, and I am even more productive now!

A Lovely Evening

I spent a lovely evening with myself. Well, myself and the fuzzy freaks. :-) Traffic was hell, but once I got home, I got into my comfy clothes, had some dinner, fed the pups and put my feet up. I watched an older movie that I love (Moonstruck) with Louie sprawled across my lap and Maggie at my feet. It was peaceful and relaxing and I felt happy. It's not that I never feel happy, it is just that this time I took note of it and appreciated it for what it was. I lived in the moment, I guess you would call it. It wasn't an especially exciting or what you would normally call a memorable moment, but I just stopped and took it in. I was warm and full and pleasantly entertained. Thought I would share.

Back to crazy BS tomorrow. LOL

FUCKER

This needs an explanation, yes I know. Well, my coworker (who shares an office with me), "R", thinks that the way I say "Fucker" is hilarious so she RECORDED me saying it on her cell phone. Now she plays the soundbyte all day long and laughs. BTW, she is 48 years old. She says I'm going to be famous some day and everyone will have this .wav file on their computer. She is so funny.

People Are Crazy

You know, since I've started this "dating" thing (if you want to call it that), I swear I am a freak magnet. Now, I haven't been at it very long, granted, but DAMN. Not that I'm completely normal, but seriously, there are some very strange people out there. It is hard just to find someone to have a decent conversation with! CONVERSATION! It does give me entertainment; I'll give it that. I've pretty much cut off everyone I've talked about on here for one reason or another except NY guy. We talk every day, but decided we will just be friends, and if he moves here, or I move there, we will be BEST friends. He is crazy too, but he makes me laugh. He told me today that I was the nicest person he'd ever talked to. Aww.

I had an old friend from Highschool contact me through Facebook and we email quite a bit and will probably meet up some time, but I think he got back together with his girlfriend. He is super-hot and has a good job, but I'm not thinking anything more than friends, at least for now. A new guy started calling me who lives East of the mountains I live in, and we have some decent conversation, but I don't know, we'll see. He sounds really nice, and he said he felt we had some "chemistry", so who knows. No one seems to quite fit the bill, but of course this kind of thing takes lots of time. Maybe it won't ever happen, who is to say? But it is still early in the game. Gotta go through 1000 weirdos before you find the right weirdo. I'm almost there! LOL. (Kidding.)

It seems like every day something new or strange happens, although this week has been boring as hell and I'm broke. I hate being broke, it makes me nuts.

Oh, I almost forgot, I'm down 28 pounds so far! Going strong! Not giving up!

If I were ever to get married again.

Even though it doesn't seem possible to me to find real love with as messed up as my life is, if I ever did, I would want to get married on a beach like this one. A teeny tiny little ceremony, barefoot in the sand with a wispy, soft white sundress on. Paradise. Ah, to dream. If you are going to fantasize and dream, I say DREAM BIG!

Working out with dogs.

So have you ever tried to work out at home with 2 dogs who love attention? It is an adventure.

Push-ups: Lick your face and crawl underneath you.
Sit-ups: Lick your face and crawl up on your stomach.
Squats: Bring out their toys and drop them in front of you, patiently waiting for you to reach down and throw them after each squat.
Lunges: Get in your way so you fall over.
Kicks: Bark at you.
Stretching: Bring the ball and drop in your laugh and whine.
Step-ups: Drop the ball in front of you so you trip over it.
Cool down: Pee on the floor.

AAAARGG!

Favorites Today

OK, this is not going to be a "Friday" thing I do, it is going to be a whenever-the-hell-I-want-to thing I do. LOL. I can't stick to a routine to save my life!

So here is the "favorite things" list for today.

The Yankee Candle air freshener for the car; scent "Sun and Sand". Smells like the beach! Suntan oil and hot, warm sand. Love it! Purchased at Fred Meyer (Kroger's).

Quicken 2010. Personal Finance made easy. This is the coolest program ever for getting your "Shit Together"! Purchased at Costco for $39.99, but had a $20 off coupon, so got it for $19.99. Worth every penny!

Nighty night.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Well, it's a good thing I told myself not to get too excited. Gah. Another day, another disappointment. Shocker.

I finally watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" (great movie) and the main guy (Will Smith) said something to his son like "Just go after what you want until you get it. PERIOD." It is a great saying and I believe you can apply it to jobs/success, etc. but, it doesn't work for everything. I'm still hoping I have a chance for something in particular that I didn't get that I REALLY want, but it's not really something I have control over. I know that doesn't make sense, but it would if I explained it. Maybe I will someday if I get the guts.

I didn't just see that.

Well, something potentially really good may be happening to me, but I'm not going to get too excited yet because, well, its MY life and I also don't want to sabotage it by talking about it too early or being presumptuous. I will just see how it goes. :-)

I'm at my mom's and I actually got her to watch a horror movie with me! The weird thing is SHE used to be a horror film fanatic and is the one who got me started on them when I was little! NOW, she has decided she doesn't like them anymore. We are watching "High Tension", a pretty gruesome little flick with a hell of a twist. (I've seen it before.) My mom cracks me up. We just saw a "gross" scene and she said out loud, "I didn't just see that." LOL!

Eat, sleep, work?

I really don't know what to do. I am so tired ALL the time. Lately I just have zero energy. The doctor is messing with my meds again to try and fix me. I guess I don't sleep well, but something is going to have to give. I have to go to work, I have to do the household chores, I have to take care of the dogs, I have to exercise, blah, blah, blah. I do make time for fun, but it is sad when my "fun" is taking naps and doing nothing. Is this all there is to life? Eat, sleep, work? I surely hope not.

My Whiteboard

Sometimes the senior person should take the grunt work upon themselves. I have a really good attitude about it too. LOL!

This is my whiteboard assignment of who's doing what at work, so if anyone asks about something in particular, we know who to send them to. Our "workflows" are documents that need revisions, and each is assigned a number. "Admin" workflows are the tedious unimportant ones that no one wants to do.

Slacker Extraordinaire

I'm behind. I'm a slacker. I know. I will catch up soon, OK? I have so much going on and I can't catch my breath.

Miss me? (If you go to comments and say, "Yes", I will update sooner and better with more details. If not, you'll get minimal effort on my part.) A little incentive. That is all.

Hot Tub, Candles, Wine, and BFF

Ahhhhhhhh. Hot tubs ROCK.

My BFF's Cabin

Life is sweet and peaceful out here at the cabin. It has been a day of eating, napping and hot tubbing. I made us eggs-in-the-hole for breakfast and burritos for dinner. Tomorrow is steak and onions. I love doing nothing. I'm really good at it.

Demolition

Here we go. Since I'm going out of town for 4 days, it is a great time for my neighbor to fix the heater leak and, BONUS! I get to have someone watch the house while I'm gone! Gotta like that. The wall crumbles apart in your fingers, and when you poke at the floor, pieces drop down into the crawl space. Awesome. Good thing I'm getting this done now.

I'm looking forward to a nice glass a wine while looking out the water. Leaving work now. I watched the time at work today, and it did not make it go faster.

Don't know what to say anymore.

I feel like I ramble about the same shit over and over again. I need a new muse. ;-)

I am getting ready to leave for several days to go down to Hood Canal to stay in a cabin with my BFF for some nice R&R. It is right on the water and has a hot tub. Getting out of town is just what I need right now. I am also in the process of solidifying my trip to Cali in June.

I have been unusually tired lately, to the point where I am nodding off on the freeway. NOT good. I went to see an endocrinologist yesterday and she wants to adjust some of my meds; namely my thyroid meds, and also run some tests. Terrific.

Well, there is a bunch of other stuff going on in my life right now, but I am going to keep that to myself for now. Sorry! :-)

Finally a chance to sit down.

I have been running around like a maniac all week and I am finally able to sit down at the computer and catch up. Paying bills, blogging, writing, returning emails and looking at some of my favorite sites. My BBQ went well, everyone loved my kabobs. It was my first time BBQing all by myself. (The cooking part, I mean.) I inherited my mom's old Weber, and I bought a new grill for it and some utensils. I've never worked with coals before so that was interesting, but I did it! This must sound stupid to everyone out there, but I have been making some small victories for myself lately, and as dumb as they are to the rest of the world, they mean something to me. I've always been pretty independent, but there were a few things I just never had to do, and now that I'm doing them, I feel empowered! Super Crazydogmama! LOL.

Now here is the sucky news. I have a heater in one of my back bedrooms that has been broken for some time due to a leak. (It is powered by water.) It was turned off and not used, but I noticed a spot on the carpet the other day. I had my neighbor come and look at it, and the leak still somehow continued, and has rotted out my floor and entire wall between the bedroom and the office. FUCKING GREAT. We ripped up the carpet and looked into the wall, and OMG what a mess. He has to replace all the flooring and wallboard and fix the leak. Not only is my house going to be ripped apart, but I gotta shit some more MONEY. When it rains it pours. I get one thing fixed, and something else goes wrong. Thank God he is a friend and is only going to charge me minimally, but it is still going to cost hundreds of dollars I don't have. And I still have to pay my taxes. I don't know how, but I will manage. I can hock stuff, sell blood, maybe pimp myself out.

Life can be crap, but my day is coming. There is nothing like learning and growing in the journey, right?

Running around nuts.

Gotta run to the store, go to a baby shower, then I'm having a BBQ! It is beautiful today. Going to make CrazyDogMama kabobs! (Are there any other kind?) I have never had a BBQ so early in the year.

New Friday Theme?

Crazydogmama's Friday Favorites!

This might be a new Friday theme! So, what we have here are products that CrazyDogMama recommends. If I keep this up, it could be anything from food, to products, to places or anything in between. Today we have Mrs. Meyers air freshener, a little gem I found at the Metropolitan Market on lower Queen Anne in Seattle. A nice, light and "cheery" scent that doesn't smell all chemical-ly. THEN, we have a beautiful mocha made with love by "Ellie" at "Holy Grounds" coffee shop on 1st Ave in Seattle. YUMMY.

Have a nice weekend y'all!

My little articulate extortionist.

My mother has this hilarious little habit of saying phrases wrong and using words incorrectly. As I get older, I am starting to do the same thing, proving it is genetic. Ha. The other day at work I was trying to tell a few of my coworkers how "intuitive" Louie, my dog, is. Instead, I told them my dog was "articulate". Roars of laughter. THEN, yesterday Louie was chasing his tail and rolling around like a freak and my mom exclaimed, "What an extortionist he is!" I laughed so hard I peed. So now everyone wants to meet Louie, the "articulate extortionist". LOL!

A Strong Woman Vs. A Woman of Strength

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape,
but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything,
but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.

A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her,
but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future,
a woman of strength realizes life's mistakes can also be God's blessings and capitalizes on them.

A strong woman walks sure footedly,
but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face,
but a woman of strength wears grace.

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey,
but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong.

- Marta S. Hardy

The Crazies

Gotta love good zombie flicks. My neighbor was an extra in "ZMD, Zombies of Mass Destruction". How cool is THAT? I'm going to see if either he or my stepson wants to go see "The Crazies" with me, I have to go with someone who can appreciate the genre, and I'm not going by myself.

It's a DATE not a wedding!

I love my coworker's take on my situation.

"For the love of God Cheryl, it's a DATE not a wedding! Just GO. Let him take you out and spend some money on you, and have a good time!"

She has a point.

Persistence

Remember the guy I told you about that asked me out and I turned him down? He won't give up. It seems strange to me that he wants to go out with me that bad. Most likely guy hormones, I don't know. I'm suspicious of motives I guess. Am I being paranoid? As much as I *love* a persistent man, I just don't know. I don't trust my decision making abilities.