Category: Life

2010 Year in Review

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2010 was a pretty good year although I didn’t blog much. Some of the highlights with a few low points as well:

The first part of the year was slow going, the highlight being seeing the Windy City Rollers in January.

I got a new computer in March.

We hatched mantids in April.

During this time there was a huge transition at work in my department specifically which was scary at first but ended up being a really good thing.

Oreo passed away and we visited Ohio and Kentucky in May.

In June we saw Aziz Ansari live and Miss Toad came to live with us.

Nutterbutter died in July.

Nothing worthwhile happened in August. Or at least anything worth writing about.

In September we visited a new area of Wisconsin.

We had a lot of fun doing Fall activities in October.

November and December were filled with family and holidays which is always fun and I got my Kindle which I love love love!

In all, a pretty good year, although it was marred a bit today by a trip to the emergency room. Remember that attack I had on Valentine’s weekend? Well last night at 11 pm I woke up with one again but this one lasted all night alternating in intensity and I didn’t get a wink of sleep. It showed no signs of going away so finally around 7 am I asked Joe to drive me to an urgent care center but they were all closed (apparently illness DOES take a holiday), so we went to the hospital, the same one all my doctors work in and I’ve had all my procedures in. I love the people at this place! Everyone is so nice and caring and this morning was no exception. They hooked me up to an IV and heart monitor, then did an EKG, took blood and urine, and did a chest x-ray. They also gave me a shot of Ativan to calm me.

We were there about three hours while we waited for all the test results. The ER doctor felt my heart was perfectly fine (same thing I was told earlier in the year by a cardiologist) and that I had suffered from a panic attack. He gave me a low dose prescription for Xanax which I plan to only take at night since that’s the only time I ever have these attacks. I just wish I knew for sure what was causing them. I think it’s a perfect storm of food and stress because last night I ate onions and drank a can of Coke Zero (onions and caffeine were present the last time I had an attack), plus Joe’s kids said some hurtful things to him in relation to my family so I had that on my mind too. I really wish I could just not care about some things but how do you do that? You try to be a good person who thinks of others but that doesn’t necessarily make the other people in your life return the sentiment. Kids think divorce messes them up, and I will never argue that point, but it’s hell on the adults too, particularly when you’re a step-parent who has to keep their mouth shut regarding a lot of things that go on.

So anyway, I’ve gotten just a few hours of sleep since yesterday morning and I’m wondering if I’m going to make it to midnight. Joe is already asleep on the couch. How old are we?

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and that 2011 is just as great, or better, than 2010!

Snowy Day

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Ugh. The first substantial snowfall of the season has arrived. Can it go away now? Once again my plans to visit Milwaukee Public Museum have been thwarted. I really do hope we get to go before the special frog exhibit ends.

Since we were snowed in (not literally), we tried to be somewhat productive even though we didn’t do too much before 11 am.

This is what I got accomplished:

Reorganized my recipe binder – I finally threw out the recipes I was hanging onto that I knew I was never going to try, making room for the recipes I have tried and liked but didn’t have room to file appropriately.

Created an Evite for a Roller Skating Party I’m putting together to celebrate my birthday next month – It’s been ages since I’ve roller-skated and I miss it. We’d have parties when I was in school and even though I didn’t have an outgoing personality, I always went because I loved to skate.

Reorganized the hall closet – It was getting pretty messy and I had to get a lightbulb to change out the one that’s “guaranteed to last 8 years” but only lasted less than 5.

Joe worked on my car. He was going to change the wheel bearings and brakes but only ended up doing the brakes because he couldn’t get the axle nuts removed. We tried calling a bunch of places to see if he could rent the appropriate tools but most places didn’t offer them, some were closed, and the one place that did have what we were looking for informed us how difficult it would be to get them off even with the tools they had available.

Thanks to Rental Max for their extreme helpfulness. One of the employees discussed the project with Joe for quite awhile. Talk about superb customer service! They didn’t have to help at all since we weren’t going to be renting any tools from them.

By the way, I’ve got another good customer service story to share. I contacted Hanes recently about some underwear I bought over the summer. I usually wear a size 5, but it was a bit tight, so I got a size 6. The problem is the crotch is like an inch wider in the 6. As if someone’s crotch is going to be that much bigger one size up! So I mentioned it and they asked for some additional details and are mailing me a check for what I paid for the package of undies.

I noticed I’ve had good luck with my complaints if I’m matter-of-fact about the issue. Some people just send nasty comments and I don’t blame the company if they ignore them in that case. Although I will say I’m disappointed with Clean and Clear for never getting back to me when I expressed concern over them discontinuing my favorite foaming face wash. I guess you can’t win them all.

Destructive Ratties & Four Day Weekends

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Yesterday I bought Templeton a hammock for his cage.

This morning I found it torn to shreds.

Apparently he wanted to drag it inside his igloo and was determined to get it in there by any means necessary. He had two of the four clips completely severed from their hooks so I had to throw the whole thing away. It would have been faster and less frustrating had I taken the $8 I paid and flushed it down the toilet. I guess he doesn’t want a hammock now that he has the igloo. I thought he’d like it since he enjoyed it so much in the past. Silly rat!

Thanksgiving Dinner

It was a nice productive four day weekend and I wish it didn’t have to end. We visited with family on Thanksgiving, had our own Thanksgiving on Black Friday, had my car repaired at a discounted price, finished Christmas present shopping for the kids, put up our Christmas lights outside, cleaned the house, and cleaned Miss toad’s tank.

I even got lucky in the shopping department today and found a cute sweater at Target as well as a scarf, fuzzy slippers and a pair of boots at Payless for a great price. I know I mentioned my goal to not spend as much money, and I still intend to do that, but I’ve been looking for boots all over the place to replace the ones that are literally falling apart so I make no apologies. Heck, even the slippers and sweater were “needs” since I’m always cold. The scarf was probably more of a “want” since I didn’t need it, but it’s super cute and was $7.50 so I’m not going to feel guilty about it. Considering we spent less than $50 at Target today when we typically spend over $100, and that included my $20 sweater, I’d say we’re doing pretty good being more frugal.

Spendy

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We spent way too much money this week on non-essentials. Besides ordering my new computer, we bought Super Mario Brothers Wii, an Xbox 360, new clothes, and new beach towels – a White Sox theme for the boys, and a cute starfish theme for us girls. Basically nothing we actually needed. We already had beach towels – cheap ones we bought at Walmart years ago. They are thinning and not as cute as the new ones, but it’s not like we really needed new ones. I think we were just in a spendy mood. Plus I couldn’t resist the cuteness factor.

Thank god we don’t do this often. We really need some nice weather so we spend less time at the store blowing money and more time outdoors enjoying nature for free.

Next weekend is going to be a 4-day one for us so we’ve got some fun stuff planned. I’m really looking forward to it! Between having Friday off, and working from home tomorrow, the week should fly by. I sure hope so!

My Birthday

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My 34th birthday was a week ago and I’ve gotten so used to not being able to take my birthday off from work that even though this was the first time in years I could have taken a vacation day, I didn’t bother. My reasoning was that a) it was cold and crappy outside anyway and b) I’d just have to go back to work on Friday and work even harder to get caught up from losing a day. So not worth it.

I started reconsidering that decision when I learned we were getting hit with some snow Wednesday evening into Thursday, but Joe and I decided he’d just drive me to work since the Escape has four wheel drive.

While I was in the shower he put two gifts on the sink that I discovered as I was drying off.

Inside were two very pretty necklaces. One is a sterling silver heart and the other is purple cubic zirconium shaped like a flower. I wore the purple one into work as I just so happened to have chosen to wear an outfit that matched.

After work we stopped at Blockbuster to rent a movie (Away We Go, which was not very good) and pick up a pizza from Lou Malnati’s. With the crazy weather I wasn’t up for a dinner at a restaurant.

After the movie I opened my presents.

Birthday Presents

I’m pretty disappointed with the CDs. It’s not Joe’s fault; I had them on my Amazon wish list. I just don’t know what I was thinking with The Cure tribute album as most of the songs are terrible. As for the Fatboy Slim CD, we both thought it was the same concert as the DVD we own, but it’s not. So that sucks.

Also one of my iPhone cases doesn’t fit quite right, but I contacted the manufacturer and they are willing to send me a replacement so that’s good. I really love iFrogz! I was thinking about buying a case from them for my iPod, but I’d rather have this skin instead.

I’m pretty excited about my DVD even though I haven’t gotten around to opening it just yet. I used to love The State so many years ago. I remember watching it at my grandparents’ house since my parents never had cable. Maybe I’ll check it out this weekend since we’re kid/plans free. We’re doing dinner and BINGO with friends tomorrow night, but Saturday and Sunday are wide open.