Maggie Mae

As if life couldn't get any crazier...we adopted a puppy! All sewing/quilting has been on hold since Tuesday...even though my blocks for the zig zag quilt along are ready to be sewn together...

Last Friday night we went to the animal shelter to look at a few dogs...we put an application in for no dog in particular so Hubby and I could properly discuss. That night we decided to adopt a chocolate lab puppy that we thought was 10 months old. A call on Monday led me to believe we didn't stand a chance at getting her due to how many applications they already had. Tuesday afternoon we received another call from a woman who was fostering the siblings of the puppy we wanted and offered us her sister. The puppy was from a litter that was brought up from North Carolina...and was only 13 weeks old, not 10 months.

We went to meet her that night with Paige at the animal shelter. It was all up to Paige at that point, because if Paige didn't like her, it was a no-go. The girls met and really just ignored each other. There was too much else going on at the shelter and too many other scents to get a real sense of how they would be.

Our first night was hell! The puppy cried every hour in the crate. We got no sleep! I really don't think we knew quite what we were in for. Each day/night gets better, but at first I really questioned if we made the right decision. Paige seems happy. The puppy who we finally named Maggie Mae is very attached to Paige. Everyone is adjusting...well almost everyone. It took Spike a few days to come downstairs, but Annabelle still won't come down. She'll come around eventually...I hope.

We took Maggie to the vet yesterday and she was given a clean bill of health. She was treated for a few things while in foster care so we were happy everything came back ok.

Some day Maggie will be a great dog....but for now she's just a puppy!

Race Against Time

Looking back this time a year ago, there was no way I would be able to spend an hour (or 2) a night sewing. I was planning a wedding, working full time, and taking classes. I never had time for hobbies, other than pottery. Now that the wedding has passed and I've stopped taking classes, I've had so much time to spend on hobbies. The problem is I have too many hobbies!

By the end of the work day, I'm usually so tired and frustrated that all I want to do is go home and veg...which I do...ALOT! Not to mention all this weight I have gained since the wedding. Who has time (or energy) to work out after working all day, and then even more energy to create? Not me! I can't even imagine what having kids will do to my "me time".

Well I have bad news...classes start on Monday. Yes, classes, plural. The good news....they are online. My hobby time will be gone once again. It's time to prioritize and make some cuts. Scrap booking has been long gone. I'd rather spend $300 on fabric than on a Cricut. I'm sure I'll revisit scrap booking later, like when I have kids to take pictures of. Pottery is on hiatus too. It's too expensive and in this economy it's all about saving money. Besides, how many bowls or cup-like things without handles do I really need? Knitting and cross stitch are good traveling crafts so they'll probably survive the downsizing (at least this time around). It looks like sewing is here to stay! Goals of the week, by Monday I need to finish AB purse #2 (fabric is cut & ready to be sewn) and ORB quilt. I'm still behind in the quilt along. I have one strip set left to complete. Hopefully I'll finish the top tonight :) Then I'll need to pick backing and batting up from the store.

Wish me luck!

Adventures in Traveling, Part 2

Murphy’s law…the story of my life.

Normally when traveling I keep a close eye on my belongings. In this day and age, you have to. To me, nothing is safe in the hotel room. I've read too many online reviews lately and even know people who have had items stolen from their hotel rooms. Everything should be locked away to not even tempt the housekeeping staff. Luckily, my hotel provides a safe. However, as you might’ve guessed, my safe does not work. So I basically left a laptop, wallet, mp3 player, camera, and GPS (it is the technology age after all) in an unlocked safe.

I ran up to my room, mid day and found my door open. Yep, awesome! Housekeeping had come, clean, and left my damn door open. So now not only is my stuff sitting in an open safe, but my door is open. Coincidence? I don’t know.

I went straight to the front desk, after checking that my possessions were in place. I got an apology. That’s it! Not a “we’ll look into it”, not even a “we’ll talk to the housekeeping staff”, just an apology by some creep with a British accent, so I'll admit the apology did sound nicer. I also told them my safe was broke. They said they would send someone up right away. Since I was attending a conference I said I would not be able to be in my room and they assured me it was not a problem. I go to my room half an hour later and my phone is blinking red. The safe fixer people left a voice mail (which retrieving was a PITA) that as I was not in the room, they would have to come back when I wanted them to open my safe. They even got the freakin message wrong! I put the little privacy, do not disturb, aka GO AWAY sign on my door and left it up for the remainder of my trip!

This stuff seriously only happens to me! Email me if you'd like the name of that lovely little hotel!

I believe in destiny…

I’m attending a work conference in Baltimore. I was asked to go suddenly to fill in for another coworker. I was only supposed to be here for 2 days, but as it turns out I’m here for the long haul.

At first it seemed like God, or somebody was keeping me from traveling. I had so many “stay home” signs, it’s a little eerie. First, none of my clothes fit. Literally. I know you have fat clothes. Every woman has fat clothes. Nevermind. As I’m writing this I’m remember my husband is one of my only readers and this is TMI for us newlyweds!

So aside from buying a whole new wardrobe (which is ok, it’s one of my 101 goals), my headlight burned out the night before I was set to leave. Yep! So I drove my butt to the local auto part store, picked up the light, and off I went to replace it. After an hour of arguing with Hubby, the light was in place, but it still didn’t work. Apparently the part store (jerk) sold me the wrong light. So we spent an hour pulling out the headlight (trust me it was fun) to replace something that already worked! So I said f-it I’ll drive during the day.

Day of departure: So frustrated with car last night, don’t pack until morning of trip. Late for work. Leave work around noon, forget insurance cards. Driving out of state with one headlight and no insurance cards = (potentially) lots of tickets. Forget business cards. You do know you are going to a business conference right??? Get lunch, get business cards, get on the road. Forget toothpaste. Awesome!

Stay tuned for more tales of my adventures in Baltimore!

Annoying neighbors, crappy weather, and a stinky dog

Things are pretty sucky right now.

I'm a terrible blogger at the moment. I'm highly unmotivated to blog or do much of anything that does not involve sitting on the couch under 3 or so blankets and watching television. Oh, I can blog while sitting on the couch watching TV? Ooops!

I fell off the church wagon. How hard is it to give up an hour of my Sunday for God you ask? When that hour is in the morning at 8 am, it's pretty darn hard right now, especially since it's winter. I've been meaning to go back but church then leads to me going food shopping (Acme is right up the street) and I hate food shopping, especially when it's all little old ladies (coming from church of course). I want to be in, then out, without knocking little old ladies to the ground. It scares me because I look at them and think, wow, that will be me someday. Makes me want to cry quite honestly.

I've also fallen off the gym wagon. I was motivated to go, along with everyone else right after New Year's. None of the machines I like to use were available so it was pointless going. I need to go back especially with the 7 boxes of girl scout cookies Hubby bought, the baking I've been doing, the huge bag of Swedish Fish (mmmmm!) from Christmas, and all the take out we've been having.

It's been an especially cold winter here. Last night it snowed more than has in the past 2 or so years. The snow covered trees are beautiful. I love snow, except when I have to drive in it. Beetles are not made for driving in snow and unfortunately I had an exam last night. The teacher bumped the exam up to earlier in the evening because of the weather but was 40 minutes late!! By the time I left after the exam the roads were messy and snow covered. Weather forecasters predicted 1-3" of snow and damn were they wrong. Philadelphia received 8" of snow last night!

I couldn't get my car up any further in the driveway after class because it was mostly covered in snow.

The beginning of the storm!

Our neighbors are ridiculously (insert negative adjective here). We try to stay out of their way, avoid eye contact, etc but sometimes its hard to ignore them. For the past 48-72 hours we've been experiencing a round the clock rock concert. Brother #2 who occupies the upstairs apartment has all of his windows open (yes, it is very, very cold here) and is blasting music starting around 730-8am until 10pm. It's annoying because there is no escaping it in our house. I don't know how the people (his brother & family) deal with it!!! I've going to get a copy of the local noise ordinance tomorrow.

Paige is going to the vet tomorrow. It's time for annual check up, shots, etc. I'm glad she's going because her eyes have been runny lately. I'm not a bad fur mommy though! Her eyes have always been runny, just really bad lately. She's also quite stinky! We're going to have the vet check out her situation but it's pretty bad. I'm afraid she's making our whole house smell like butt!

Pretty (my parents beagle) & Paige napping during Pretty's visit last weekend.

Hubby's bday is tomorrow so it's time to get cracking on his birthday cheesecake.

What If...

Do you ever think about the consequences of your actions? Do you ever think if maybe I hadn't of done this, that wouldn't have happened?

I have these moments all time.

A week or so ago I drove to Wawa for lunch. It was the day of Obama's inauguration so I left a little early to get back in time to watch the swearing in ceremony. Anyway, I was stopped at a traffic light right outside of work waiting to turn left. Normally there is a green arrow but I guess I didn't get to the intersection in time. I made my left....and so did the person in front of me. I don't know if they weren't paying attention...or just thought there was a green arrow so they could go, but they got slammed into by pickup truck making the left turn. The pickup truck definitely sped up (a-hole) because I was turning in front of him but this lady clearly wasn't paying attention.

I felt really bad. Really, really bad! I didn't know it had even happened but Hubby heard it and turned around. From what I heard everyone was OK....but I felt like what if. What if I had waited until there weren't any cars coming? I obviously was in no way at fault for the accident but it definitely made my day suck knowing that someone, like me, was just going to pick up lunch and probably totaled their car. Ugh!

Merry Christmas!

Not that many people read this, but I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. Things get hectic around the holidays. All the baking, shopping, decorating leaves time for much else. I've backed 2 batches of choc cookies (recipe off of the Nestle choc package), 1 batch of press cookies (soon to be 2 because I can't stop eating them), 1 batch of snicker doodles for Hubby, and I've still got 2 batches of butterballs left to make (my family's favorite - it will NOT be Christmas without these), and 1 batch of peanut butter for Hubby (only if he finally goes Christmas shopping tonight). I picked up the cutest cookie tins this year but I will definitely plan ahead next year because they unfortunately cost more than I really wanted to spend. The cookie list is ever expanding which this year will include an extra large tin to my brother, his gf, and her kids, plus a little one for my neighbors next door. I still have to buy one last present, wrap everything, and pick up some treats for the dog.

This has unfortunately been a very expensive month for us. My car needed some work done, and the parts for my car are more expensive than the average car. Seriously, my tires cost $200 a piece, and I've replaced them all at this point!! Last week, one of the holy sh!t lights on my dash illuminated on the drive home from work. Rather than go home, I took it straight to the dealership. My alternator apparently died and from what the tech said I was lucky I made it that far. So $730 later, I have my car back...and that's just for the alternator and labor, I didn't need a new battery or alternator pulley (whatever the he!! that is). We dropped off Hubby's car this morning. He needs new brakes...hopefully that doesn't break the bank!

I hope to have another post before Christmas but if not,

Where does the time go...

Either the days are getting shorter, I'm going to bed earlier, or I'm stuck in the episode of Futurama where the Planet Express crew tip off the Time/Space Continuum causing time to skip ahead. (Watch it, it's a great show!) I get home around 4:30 and it's 9pm before I know it with nothing to show for those 4 1/2 hours. The bottom line is I need more hours in a day. Maybe like 4 hours a day? Or I'd even settle for a 4 day work week. No, I'm not interested in working for 10 hour day. I want the same schedule, just one day less. Oh and I'm keeping my same pay too!

I want time for hobbies...I want enough time for hobbies and :::gasp::: cleaning. I want to bake, have time for food shopping, but still have time for video games and reading. I want to get my sewing room in tip top shape so I can finish some projects. There's just never enough time so something has to go. I'll let you know when I figure it out!

Can you really get something for nothing?

Here is an offer for a free 20 page photo book ($30 value) from Snapfish which was featured during an Oprah episode (Sorry, it's no longer valid!):

This offer was posted all over the Internet, on blogs and various message boards that I frequent. I decided to take advantage of the offer and signed up for a Snapfish account. I clicked the free offer link, created an account, uploaded a million or so photos, and created my book. I tried placing my order, but like a million other people trying to take advantage of the offer, Snapfish had no record of the free photo book that was previously in my account. Alot of people had placed their orders thinking that they would be credited later. I decided to contact Snapfish before placing my order to see what the heck was going on. I used the online chat approach for the first time ever and only had to wait a 1/2 hour for someone to chat with me. It was resolved and my free photo book credit showed up in my Snapfish account in literally a minute.

To top it off, Snapfish was offering free shipping the day I ordered as well. So yes, you can get something for nothing...if you're in the right place at the right time! (Disclaimer: my book was more than 20 pages so I paid for the additional pages- $4.26 total.) I also ordered 40 4x6 prints of wedding pictures (free, of course!).

Update (12/3/08): I received the book this week. It's ok. The quality is just ok. It's not because of my pictures...it's Snapfish related and if you'd like more info feel free to email me. I'm definitely not complaining because the book was (almost) free, but I would definitely use Blurb if I was going to make another photo book. Blurbs books, from what I've seen, are high quality.

DONE, well sorta!

Ugh going back to work after a week off was unbearable!


On a positive note, I'm finished with my Environmental Law class. I submitted the final at 10:00pm Monday night and it was sitting in my inbox at 6:51 am Tuesday morning with SEVENTEEN comments!! Yes, the teacher was nice enough to offer us the option of revising our finals if we sent them in early but I figured, eh it's good enough. Nope, not really. I addressed each and every one of those damn comments. I resubmitted last night and prayed that it would not be in my inbox this morning. It was due at 12 noon today so I wouldn't have time for any more corrections. Nope, instead of being in my inbox, she posted my grade.....an A! Thank God it's finally over, I was beginning to lose it!


Now what to do with all this spare time I gain from not having class on Wednesdays or homework due every week you ask? Plan a wedding! Duh! I thought I would feel a weight lifted from my shoulders after being done class but I'm starting to think the giant knot in my stomach is wedding related. So instead of sitting here blogging I should be assembling the favors (blah), contacting my vendors, figuring out how I want my hair, buying wedding day jewelry, starting a seating chart, creating programs...I think you get the picture.

RSVPs are due tomorrow and I'm still waiting to hear from 50-something people. That's literally half of the people we invited! How hard is it to fill out the little card and put it in the already addressed/already stamped envelope? Seriously? Seriously! (End Rant)

So instead of sitting here...I'm going to get off my butt, go to the gym, and maybe try to accomplish something wedding related tonight.