Not off to a good sart

Last week I had a goal, I said I wanted to have 70 pages written by the end of this week.  I started today with having 39 pages done, having done about half a page of wirting over the weekend.  So that leaves me with 31 pages to write to make my goal of being on page 70 of the story by the end of this week.  It's a lot to do, I know but I had planned on locking myself in the basement with some dvds, my laptop and powercord.  Some days the internet is very distracting to me, especially on the days when I'm not very motivated to do something.  Those are the days when I need to get away from my desk, take my laptop and park my rear on the couch with laptop and tv. 
I also said I was going to start working out again today but again that didn't happen.  The weekend turned out differently than I thought it would.  Originally I was going to church to train a new guy on lights but he didn't show up Saturday so I had to both program and run lights.  I also ran camera two Saturday night since we were short a camera guy.  I was asked to come back Sunday just in case the light guy wasn't there and sure enough, I was running lights again.  The upside to that was a very funny moment that happened a few minutes after the first service ended, which will end up in the book somewhere.  I ran upstairs and told the folks in the tech booth what happened, along with our techinical director and they all died laughing.  We couldn't stop laughing about it for a while either. 
Yesterday afternoon was no help either; instead of grilling like we originally planned, so we got stuck at Cracker Barrel (leave it to my brothers to not plan ahead) and didn't eat lunch until 4:00.  Yeah just what I love doing, starving myself for the day only to eat lunch at dinner time.  *sigh*  So after that we hit HOBO and then it was back here for dessert and tea.  After they left I basically got nothing done, I was tired and just needed some time to not run anywhere or feel like I had to be anywhere.  I still haven't seen Thor yet but I will see it one of these days.  I need to find out what my schedule will look like this week and then can plan to escape for a couple hours to catch a matinee.  I got an email from my friend asking if I was free Wednesday or Thursday to do some work for him, and I said yes.  So that's going to eat up a few hours of my time this week. 
I really want to push myself this week and write, preferably the planned 31 pages so I can get further into the story than I normally would be at this point.  That way I'll feel like the book will be finished and published by this time next year.  That's my ultimate goal, if I can pull it off sooner than even better!  I'm really hoping I'll get a good advance for the book so that I can both pay off my car loan and put some of it down for a down payment on a house.  I don't want to spend all of it on a downpayment, I will need some money to pay bills after all, and buy furniture since I won't have much. 
Next weekend won't be any help either, I'm going to a brunch on Saturday then most likely, go straight to church from there for my regular weekend on lights.  Plus my cousin said she's going to come up for the weekend for her birthday.  If she does and she doesn't change her mind, then we're going to go to a Persian restaurant in Milwaukee for lunch on Sunday.  It's tiring just thinking about this, think about how much worse it would be if I had a full time job.  UGHLast week I had a goal, I said I wanted to have 70 pages written by the end of this week.  I started today with having 39 pages done, having done about half a page of writing over the weekend.  So that leaves me with 31 pages to write to make my goal of being on page 70 of the story by the end of this week.  It's a lot to do, I know but I had planned on locking myself in the basement with some dvds, my laptop and power cord.  Some days the internet is very distracting to me, especially on the days when I'm not very motivated to do something.  Those are the days when I need to get away from my desk, take my laptop and park my rear on the couch with laptop and tv. 
I also said I was going to start working out again today but again that didn't happen.  The weekend turned out differently than I thought it would.  Originally I was going to church to train a new guy on lights but he didn't show up Saturday so I had to both program and run lights.  I also ran camera two Saturday night since we were short a camera guy.  I was asked to come back Sunday just in case the light guy wasn't there and sure enough, I was running lights again.  The upside to that was a very funny moment that happened a few minutes after the first service ended, which will end up in the book somewhere.  I ran upstairs and told the folks in the tech booth what happened, along with our technical director and they all died laughing.  We couldn't stop laughing about it for a while either. 
Yesterday afternoon was no help either; instead of grilling like we originally planned, so we got stuck at Cracker Barrel (leave it to my brothers to not plan ahead) and didn't eat lunch until 4:00.  Yeah just what I love doing, starving myself for the day only to eat lunch at dinnertime.  *sigh*  So after that we hit HOBO and then it was back here for dessert and tea.  After they left I basically got nothing done, I was tired and just needed some time to not run anywhere or feel like I had to be anywhere.  I still haven't seen Thor yet but I will see it one of these days.  I need to find out what my schedule will look like this week and then can plan to escape for a couple hours to catch a matinee.  I got an email from my friend asking if I was free Wednesday or Thursday to do some work for him, and I said yes.  So that's going to eat up a few hours of my time this week.

Today was a Slug Day

I feel like such a slug today, I've basically done nothing all day.  The only productive thing I've done today was to make a package of pasta, and it was one of those lipton boxes too, so not even from scratch or anything like that.  I tried to go down to the basement to make something but I felt blocked creativly, I blame my etsy bill for that one.  I looked at it late last night while I was downloading my sales information for taxes and it was scary!  The amount kept blocking my creativiity today and I just had to walk away from my beads.  It just wasn't worth trying to force something when I wasn't there creative wise.  I'm better off going back to my beads another day. 

Remind me not to look at that again.  ;)

At least that block doesn't affect my wirting, that is, assuming I actually did some writing for my book.  I didn't of course, just kind of slacked off all day.  And here I was going to sweep and mop the kitchen floor today.  Well yesterday actualy but I forgot to do it then.  SSSHHHHHH  New NCIS tonight so I won't be doing anything for a good two hours while both shows are one.  Which means I should go down to do something now.  If only I had a clue what I wanted to make for dinner...

The Hunt is on!

Looking for some fun and bargins?  Well look no further, or should I say, there's a scavenger hunt going on!  Find the coupon codes and save, sale ends Sunday 3/20/11.

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE

 (1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

 (2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

 (3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

 (4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

 (7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome'.  That will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying "Go to hell." (edited)

 (9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to #3.


* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.
* Send this to all the women you know to give them a good laugh, cause they know it's true!!!

I think I've been watching too much A-Team...

Friday afternoon I was prepping for something I was going to bake later that night, Chocolate Filled Filo Triangles.  The recipe is from the Classic Stars Desserts book that I picked up some time last year from Borders.  This is my third recipe from the book and I was hopeful that it would be as good as the French Silk (pictured on the cover) and lemon squares that I made last year for my brother's block party.  The downside to the recipe is that it only makes eight servings (or four like I did because I forgot one crucial part of the recipe), so I just planned on doubling it and bought enough ingredients to make three batches but wasn't sure I was going to make the third as I was shopping.

Getting back to Friday afternoon, while prepping for the recipe, I had to measure out 1/2 ounces of bitter sweet chocolate and decided to go with the three batches.  But I didn't have nearly enough prep bowls to keep all the chocolate separate so I looked around, trying to rack my brain for ideas.  My initial thought was egg carton, but as I fond out, we didn't have a near empty egg carton like I thought.  So then I thought ice cube trays, but I couldn't find the extra ones so I was back to square one.  I looked around the house wondering what in the world I could use to keep all the measured chocolate separated and ready to go for that night.  Spotting my glass 8x8 pan in the dinning room I thought that would work, if I lined it with aluminum foil and used foil to section it off.  But then I remembered that some of the chocolate was cut down into little pieces and shavings so that wouldn't work.  It would be near impossible to try to get the chocolate out of that later. 

Then it hit me, cut pieces of aluminum foil into squares and shape them into cups.

So I grabbed the aluminum foil out of the pantry and cut strips about four to five inches wide, then folded them over to crease and cut (by hand) in half.  Once I had that done, I took the first square of aluminum foil and placed it in the palm of my hand, forming it into a cup.  I put the chocolate in that and set it on a cookie sheet.  After the initial one I used the small prep bowl to form the aluminum foil bowls and filled them with the chocolate pieces already cut.  And went on to finish cutting all the chocolate into 1/2 ounce pieces. 

Worked great!  I just set it aside until later that night when I made the triangles and tossed them when I finished. 

I know, I know, I'm late in Mentioning this but....

I'm  featured on Joy De Vivre's blog today, take a look!  There's even a give away.  :)

Neda

Getting a little serious here....

When the election and protests broke in Iran, I, along with several other friends and family were spread the videos, links, etc.  Then of course things died down and so did our posts on the subject, but we of course posted the occasional link, video, etc.   Last night my cousin posted this video:


After I watched that I ran across this great video.


And then I found this documentary about Neda and the revolution


Neda means voice in Farsi

Chuck

I'd just like to say how much I love that show.  It has so many great moments and lines. 

Seduction Impossible

need I say more?

blizzard of 2011

I have no idea how much snow we have exactly, looking out the windows it looks like it's about 2 feet.  I'd love to go outside and run aroundi n al that wonderful powder!  Say what you will, but I love snow!  Seriously, I lovei t!  If we had a better snowblower I'd be outside clearing our driveway right now.  But my sister said she was going to send someone over to clear it.  Someone with a monster snowblower.  So we'll see if they ever show.  I can see a couple folks down the street both clearing with a snowblower and a shovel.  We've had four major blizzards in Chicago (at least for the purposes of this post), the first was in 1967, then in in 1979, 1999 and now in 2011.  I missed the one in ;67 by five years but I remember the one in '79 and of course, '99.

Today is nice and sunny, so much so that I'm seriously thinking of retaking the pictures I took yesterday.  Not sure though because I plan on locking myself in the basement and making more things as I drool over the Lois and Clark DVDs that I picked up from the library Monday (Dean Cain has only gotten better looking with age!) and maybe even bake. 

With that said, here are some images of the blizzard of 2011....

Cuteness overload!

A Great Flashback

A classic song that will never get old.  Funny, I don't remember Chicago fest, but I guess since it only lasted a few years and ended in '82 it's not that surprising.  Still, it would be great to bring this back.  ;)

Classic Admin Quotes

With the changes to the forums I thought I'd dig out this file and post the quotes for posterity.  A few weeks ago I ran across an old thread that someone started (sorry, can't remember who) of quotes that admin said when closing threads. 

Enjoy!


*way off-topic, and kinda flame bait-ey
* This thread is turning into Samuel Beckett prose
* Move along, folks. Nothing more to see here.
* Please play nice. If you are having a hard time being nice, please think twice.
* Yay for Admin bashing
* OMG WTF?
* QUESTION MARK?
* Those are some... interesting... insults.
* Don't call out other users in the public forums -- aside from being against the rules, it also promotes the gum disease know as GINGIVITIS
* This thread got hijacked like crazy by BANDITS. THREAD BANDITS.
* STOP VIOLENCING
* Evil is bad!
* No. Bad.
* Flamebait is bad
* flamebait response is bad too i guess
* Stop -- wait -- and relax...
* I dunno where this came from, but I know it ain't productive or positive. ;P
* I don't even pretend to understand, but I'm pretty sure it's not kosher.
* increasing etsy's capacity for love
* Smokey the Bear says: Only YOU can prevent forum fires.
* from the delightfully abysmal 'Batman and Robin'
* Don't worry, Haim’s working on it
* Please use fewer drugs when posting on the forums.
* Don't hate, collaborate
* Instigation isn't cool.. what would the Care Bears do?
*You guys are copying the person that started the first argument -- expect a call from their patent lawyer.
* It ain't the end of the world...
* Chill out folks, we handle 'em when we see 'em.
* I'm trying to eat a sandwich!
* Use your inside voices
* Not even Superman can impress and satisfy everybody -- just ask Frank Miller.
* quickly developing into a flamewar
* Take it easy, everyone. We all have different ideas of what is appropriate and what is not
* Skinny fat or in-between, fighting is not becoming
* Holy smokes, we might be violating all three of the forums guidelines here!
* It's okay to ask questions, but let's ask them nicer
* In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the delightfully abysmal 'Batman and Robin', "Chill out."
* Weird, I always though "SS" stood for "Surround Sound"...
* Love and Peace!
* Too much mud-slinging today, folks -- it's too hot to get all worked up
* If something you read upsets you, feel free to stop reading it.
* Designer bickering
* From now on just send hate mail to support@etsy.
* Be nice -- it's Father's Day!
* No more nastiness toward one another, please...
* What did I say about drugs before?
* stop the violence
* Uhhh... I don't even know what to say for this one.
* Please stop this.
* Confucius say, "Let locked threads die."
* Be nice.
* This isn't really a thread *per se* -- let's try to keep things on topic
* Veering off-topic like a skiier on an icy pond
* Constructive criticism is welcome, but bickering ain't.
* Fighting makes us cry.
* In the words of Johnny Storm, "Flame off!"
* Spring cleaning
* play nice, kids
* That's not a bug...
* Let's keep our threads a little less racist
* Peace out!
* It's time for everyone's tea and coffee break!
* Die spam, die!
* Instigation is not a virtue.
* Fighting is no fun.
* We are impervious to eyelash batting.
"A'ight now
* ::THREAD NEGATIVITY THRESHOLD HIT::

::APPLYING SONG LYRICS TO INCREASE LEVITY::

-Malcolm solves his problems with a chainsaw
-and he never has the same problems twice!
*On behalf of the race of nerds and the country of Etsyania, I delare war on this flamewar.

 

Wooo we won!"

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the 'other side.'Yes, my friends, That chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the Liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.' That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish it's lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2010, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2010. This new platform is much more stable and will
never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Do Recruiters Even Read Resumes?

Since losing my job in July of last year, I've been applying to jobs left and right.  Because I'm on unemployment I make sure to apply to as many jobs as I can in a week.  I even do my best to find one job that's worth taking the time to apply to, even if nothing else sounds good, in a given week.  I have to regularly look for work, as in everyday if not close to it, and keep a running log of where I apply to on a form that the unemployment office gave me (you can also download it)

I have to wonder if they bothered to read my entire resume because it clearly states on there that I have administrative assistance experience and that I know MS Office.  Yet the reason for passing me up was because I didn't have those qualifications. 

Seriously?  My resume is 1.5 pages long and lists experience going back a good 10 years.  That would be 10 out of nearly 22 years of working.  Plus it has a section that just touches on the software I know, since I learned and used a lot of programs over the years.  You should have seen all the programs on my first laptop, I'd say it was twice the amount of programs on an average office computer. 

So my response back was "Thank you for your note however I would like to point out, I am proficient in MS Office as well as have been an administrative assistant for well over 10 years."

I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response.  No, I have a feeling that I'll get one of the three jobs I interviewed for last week and this week.  I don't know which one, and since I couldn't email yesterday's place a thank you letter, I'm hoping he won't hold that against me when he makes his decision tomorrow. 

Resale Shop Blues

I'm not big on resale shops, it seems whenever I've gone to thrift stores looking at clothes, all the clothes are several years old, like the type of things that I finally cleaned out of my closet, a good 10+ years after buying them.

I've been to one resale shop in Evanston that looked like they had nice clothes but if I remember correctly, it wasn't really my style.

Then last year I heard about this one in a neighboring town and checked it out. It was so cute! It didn't even look like a thrift or resale shop, more like a boutique, and the clothes were newer and I easily found things I liked.

I was bummed to see they had moved to another town, which isn't too far from me. So I was planning on going tomorrow with a friend that I'd been telling her about it. Well I was surfing a bit earlier, randomly wandering around their fanpage and I found a bad review. Read the comments and googled and was saddened to hear such bad stuff about the place. It's actually the owner that's apparently a rip off artist, she's not paying folks, etc.

I'm so bummed, I really liked the shop and had bought a few things from there. Including my very cute lavender raincoat. I wish someone would open another shop like that (especially in their old location) but be a legit company. :( If I had money I'd consider it and hire folks to run it.

DARN!

I think I'll check out this other resale shop and then hit the mall instead, tomorrow. I know there's another resale shop east of the mall, I had stopped in one day several weeks ago. I didn't care much for the clothes that day but who knows, maybe they have some other things in now. Also might need to plan a day to go to the one in Evanston this summer to see what they have.

Outsourcing Has Hit Home

No one in my immediate family has had any problems with US companies trend of outsourcing work to other countries.  My sister got her degree in marketing years ago and substitute teaches these days.  My older brother works in IT and my other brother is a cop.  I never finished college for various reasons but after talking to a friend of a friend last night, I'm glad I didn't finish my original degree, which was computer graphics. 

You see this friend (of a friend) used to be a full time employee with Big Idea Productions and in the years since they moved to TN, he's been doing some freelance work for them.  So he was getting us caught up with what's been going on over at Big Idea in recent years.  To be honest, I haven't seen a Veggie Tales video since Madame Blueberry, and even then I watched it with my ex (and his kids?) and never got around to watching anymore.  But from what I've heard, you can tell the quality has gone downhill since they started outsourcing.  The cheaper the outsourcing, the more noticable it is when you watch the videos.

Anyway, my love of computer graphics started when I sat in the theater in 1982 watching one of the coolest movies to come out since Star Wars; Tron.  I practically drooled over the computer graphics and knew then and there that's what I wanted to do when I grew up.  Fast forward to 1991 when I was a freshman at Columbia College trying to major in computer graphics.  I was disappointed that Columbia didn't offer it as a degree, and as far as I knew no one did back in those days.  Still I pressed on.... until I ran out of money and I transfered out.  By college #4 I was no longer sure I wanted to study computer graphics and for the first time in 15 years, I was undecided in terms of my college majoir. 

So in talking to that friend last night and hearing how, despite all the out of work animators in this country, Big Idea is being cheap and looking for animators in other countries to do the work when there are hundreds if not thousands of people in this very country that would love to do the work. 

After hearing that, I was glad I didn't get my degree in computer graphics.  It makes me wonder if I'd have been employed for a decade only to spend another decade out of work, struggling to find something.  I know the other person I knew that worked for Big Idea is still out of work, and he was an animator.  Last night's friend is a programmer so he has some work here and there from Big Idea and Dreamworks.  But the other friend is actually one of the original three guys that made Veggie Tales what it is today.

It's pretty shameful that companies are screwing over their own country all in the name of saving money.  Can you imagine how much the unemployment rate would drop if they stopped outsourcing and hired qualified individuals that are right here in their own country? 

So Long Andrew

:(

By Lori Preuitt
NBCLosAngeles.com NBCLosAngeles.com
updated 1/13/2011 8:46:06 PM ET 2011-01-14T01:46:06

Actor John Dye, best known for his role in the CBS drama, "Touched By an Angel," died this week in San Francisco, according to his family. He was 47.

His brother, Jerre Dye, told an online paper in Memphis that Dye suffered a fatal heart attack Monday. His family said they kept the death private until they could organize a memorial in Mississippi.

Actress Valerie Bertinelli, who co-starred with Dye in the CBS show, tweeted, "Dear, sweet John Dye, rest in peace."

John Dye made his way up the ranks as an actor in the '80s and early '90s making appearances on series like "The Young and the Restless" and "Murder She Wrote."

In 1995, John Dye landed the role of Andrew on "Touched By an Angel." It was first a recurring role, but he was promoted to a regular by the third season.

"People were very moved by the nature of John’s role, and it was not uncommon for people to come up to him in public and say their mother or brother passed away, ‘and you were a comfort.’ So often he would get some very powerful comments, so he had to learn to embrace all that," his brother Jerre told the paper.

M*A*S*H

I have to say, I've been having fun watching M*A*S*H again.  For those that don't know me, I'm one of those people that is old enough to have seen it during its original run.  I'm 38 and it was on when I was growing up.  I did catch the reruns over the years but can't remember the last time I sat down and really watched M*A*S*H.  Since being in between jobs I was able to catch M*A*S*H from the pilot episode this time around and have been watching it since. 

What's made it so fun watching M*A*S*H again in years is all the guest stars I'm noticing.  The other day I ran across an episode with a brief appearance by John Ritter.  He looked like a baby!  One thing that's been standing out to me these days though, is the laugh track.  I mean it was a part of my life but watching it as an adult I'm noticing how they just plugged it in in spots that weren't that funny.  I caught the episode entitled "OR" today and the laugh track was left out, I have to say it was much better without it. 

I have to admit, there are times when I feel old while I watch it because I remember when it originally aired, even remember the final episode.  But it's still fun watching M*A*S*H again, it's almost new again.  :)

Organization

In an effort to have a better handle on my Christmas decorations this year I decided to do something a bit different. Rather than just roll up my Christmas lights on an empty paper towel roll and call it a day, I decided to write the date on the roll so that I knew what year I bought those lights.

The reason being is because I've had lights for years but I couldn't remember what year I purchased them. It's frustrating because they all needed to be replaced since only about 2 strands worked. So I bought 6 100 count strands of lights and my tree was nice and evenly lit. Of course all those new lights will be obsolete when I finally buy a prelit tree, but who knows when that will happen.

Then again I can just shift the purspose of those lights to other areas of the house once I have the new tree. But I have plenty of time before that. In addition to buying new lights for the tree, while packing everthing up I found I had to buy a new strand of twinkling lights because one of the two strands we have, only has half working lights. One half of the strand is burnt out completely. Which explained a few things like why I'd see a random light or two flashing towards the bottom of the tree. I use twinkling lights in the center of the tree and the stationary lights go on the outer branches. So instead of just buying one box, I bought two since they had a few and were 50% off.

Now that everything is fully boxed, it's all back in the storage room and looking close to what it did when I first rearranged that entire room and reorganized everything.

New Year, New Blog

Well sort of.  I'm going to try to use this blog more this year.  We'll see how that goes.