Jeopardy

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I’ve got Jeopardy on in the background right now…for some reason, it brought to mind all of the times a group of us would watch it (and of course, challenge one another with our knowledge) when I had my pizza place…on the little bitty tv that sat on top of a refrigerator…we didn’t care.  We just enjoyed being together and seeing who knew the most about that day’s trivia questions.

I was pretty good at it…but there was one guy (hey, Seth) who was definitely good enough to make an appearance on the show.  Come to think of it, he could still do that.  Wouldn’t that be something?  We’d have to somehow get the old group together to cheer him on.

Do you have any fond memories of spending time with your old friends?  Do you all still keep in touch?  And are you a Jeopardy fanatic?

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New DIY gardening crafts

I’m a big fan of garden themed decor (think plants, birdhouses, birds, decorative pots…)  So I was thrilled to see some of the new garden themed products in our new expanded wood set…

multi dwelling birdhouse

 

kind of a cut out scroll work birdhouse

I will definitely be buying one of these for myself!

 

planter

 

I can just see this painted to match my decor.

 

rusted tin decor

 

How about this cute little watering can?

 

rusted tin birdhouse

 

Another birdhouse I’m just going to have to have…oh who am I kidding?  I’ll take one of everything!

 

 

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Feeling better…kinda…sorta

The headache from yesterday has eased…finally.  I woke up this morning (after a very restless night) with a headache.  Once again, I took 2 Excedrin…but today, the Excedrin did the trick.  The headache vanished.  Just an observation…the weather today was sunny and cold as opposed to the past few days of wet, cloudy weather.  Does that have anything to do with my headaches?  Seriously, I think I need to start a headache log just to put my mind at ease (ha…).

I’ve had headaches my entire life.  Was in the hospital as a teen to have all sorts of tests run…came away with no known reason for the headaches…that’s good (you know, not a tumor or anything like that) and not so good (what’s behind the headaches?).  I’ve never had high blood pressure, so that wasn’t the cause.  It’s one of life’s mysteries…

So, do you think some kind of log would be beneficial?  Keep track of the weather, what I’ve eaten, stress levels, exercise…anything else that you could think of that might have an impact on my poor head (well, yeah, that lobotomy might get rid of the headaches, but don’t you think that’s just a tad drastic?)?  I’m open to suggestions, ideas, your stories…what do you say?

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My head, my head…

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…my kingdom (such as it is) for headache relief.  I woke up with a headache today…took 2 Exedrin thinking the caffeine in those babies would knock the headache out.  No such luck.  I went to work, the headache didn’t lessen.  It wasn’t the worst headache I’ve ever had, but it was uncomfortable enough that it was always on my mind (yes, and all in my head too).

Even now, at home, I still can’t shake it.  I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will be just what the doctor ordered.

The interesting thing was that several of the people I work with also had headaches today…could it be weather related?  I’d say something wrong in the building, but I had it before I went in to work so I kind of think that negates that.  Strange, huh?

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Seems like I’m kind of slacking…

Image by wZa HK via Flickr

…slacking in several areas of my life…primarily with my writing.  Weird how I was able to write every day when I was working six days a week for the past few months of the year, now I’m back to a “normal” schedule and have missed several days!  What’s up with that?

I’ll give myself a pass on the day I ended up working from 5:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night…although I could have posted from my phone. They’ve updated it a little and it’s a lot easier to write and post pictures, so that’s pretty cool.  I just have to remember to adjust my camera on the phone according to the lighting…guess what I really need to do is take more pictures with it. 

 And I was pretty sick for a few days, so okay, maybe that’s an excuse…maybe…

Sometimes I think I aim for perfection and then am disappointed in myself when I don’t maintain it…when really, who among us can be perfect for very long?  Why isn’t good enough good enough?  Does anyone else have those perfectionist tendencies?  How in the world do you deal with it?

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Hair salon visit

Finally, finally…I made it in to see my hair stylist…didn’t realize it had been more than two months since my last cut and style. No wonder my hair was so shaggy looking.

My stylist is just the best…got me in at the last minute, and I didn’t even have to beg…too much…

They recently moved into a brand new building…loving the look of the place.

And who knows, maybe someday I’ll even post a photo of my stylish new do!! Someday, but not today.

That was some kind of nutty weekend…

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First we had the ice storm that prevented me from getting in my car Saturday morning, that made the roads, sidewalks, even the grass treacherous.  Sunday morning, when I went to work, there were still patches of ice…nothing too bad…and it was 48 degrees at 5 am…seriously…in January…in Indiana…by noon, the ice was gone, but a heavy fog had moved in…and it got thicker as the day and evening progressed…

I went in to work Sunday morning at 5:30 am, still not feeling well…thinking I’d go home when the closing manager got there at 12:30.  The only problem with that was the closing manager didn’t show up at 12:30.  When I tried calling him, his phone number wasn’t current…great.  He still wasn’t there at 1:30.  Then I remembered one of the early morning downstocking crew guys saying he thought it was odd that the (to remain nameless) closing manager was driving down to Louisville when he got off work Saturday night when he was scheduled to be back at work at 12:30 Sunday…not good, not good at all…

Then one of the cashiers told me that this other manager had told her that another of the managers was going to work for him…well, I knew that wasn’t going to happen because this other guy is in the National Guard and had drill this weekend…by this time my head was starting to pound and my chest was hurting from coughing.  And I was running a fever…nice…and I always tell people to stay away if they’re sick, here I was potentially infecting all of my co-workers…

So…anyhow…I’m sure you’ve already guessed how this story ends…he never showed up…I ended up working from 5:30 am until about 8:30 pm…not happy about it, but when you’re a manager, you can’t just leave when your shift is over…there has to be a manager there at all times…and yesterday, that manager was me…sometimes I really love my job!!

The sunrise from a few days ago.

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Ahh…winter…

…how I haven’t really missed you. I could have been perfectly content to have you stay far away until, oh I don’t know, maybe next December.  But no, you had to show up over night here in Indiana and make my morning more than a little uncomfortable.  You decided to visit us with your freezing rain, covering the sidewalks,

the roadways,

and even my car.  How I’m sure you laughed as I struggled (and failed) to get into my car in the dark early morning hours.  How funny you must have thought it to be to watch me using a hammer to crack the ice around the door after I came home from work.  I’m sure you chuckled while watching me slip on the sheet of ice as I feverishly worked to break through the layer of ice covering all of the car windows.  Oh yes, laugh while you can, you evil-hearted witch…your days are numbered.  In fact, your hours are numbered as the temps rise into the 50s tomorrow and all signs of you melt away.  How that warms my heart.  And if you forget all about us for the remainder of January and February, it won’t upset me at all.

To give you credit, winter, you did provide some beauty amongst the misery…

I suppose, as in much of life, beauty often hides behind the discomfort, only making itself known when we take the time to really see what is before us.

 

Martha Stewart…love her or hate her?

I have to admit, I’m not a huge Martha Stewart fan, but…I don’t hate her either…I respect the huge business she’s built, I respect that she took the blame for the whole insider trading thing and did time in prison (how many men have done the same thing with the insider trading and never done any kind of time for their crime?  Hmm…something to think about…)

What brought Martha Stewart to mind today was me watching Swagbucks TV (at home, sick) and catching several snippets of her crafting shows…the one I was watching (thinking why didn’t I think of that?) was where they were making mittens from old sweaters.  They simply traced around their hands on a piece of paper, cut it out a little larger, then used that as a pattern to cut the mittens from a sweater.  Sew it up, trim the seams, and turn…oh so cute…really…can you imagine all of the different mittens you could make from sweaters you (or the people in your family) no longer wear?

This is something I really, really want to do…we’ll see how it goes on my next weekend off work…I have lots of sweaters that I never wear…mittens for every coat is what I’m thinking!

 

red sky in the morning...uh oh...

Livewell challenge

Well, we started our health and fitness challenge at work yesterday…I ended up with over 20,000 steps for the day…well, the equivalent of 20,000 steps anyhow.  They have a calculator on the site where you can key in various activities and have those activities converted to steps…So my morning exercise bike workout ended up being the equivalent of 5,000 steps. 

Plus I did several hours of house work…I put some music on and just cleaned, cleaned, cleaned…not that it needed it or anything.  Don’t you just love walking into a room that’s been cleaned from top to bottom?

A couple of my co-workers are having cupcake wars…wow…they bring in cupcakes that they’ve made and leave them in the break room.  Today’s cupcake was red velvet with cream cheese icing…yikes!  I’m pleased to say I resisted.  I did think about eating one, but decided I was already too tired to have to do that much more exercise to burn off those calories.

I baked a home-made pizza yesterday…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…lots of spinach and mushrooms, some onion, a few turkey pepperoni and some mozzarella cheese.  That’s going to be lunch for the next several days.  I also mixed up a salad of halved cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, diced onions, cucumber chunks and, of course, my favorite Hendrickson’s olive oil and vinegar dressing.  So I got in a few servings of veggies in a very tasty lunch!  I’m doing it…and feel pretty good about it!

What tasty treats did you eat today?