Guest post: Just as a bad as a litter box

I got an email from my dear husband yesterday, and it made me laugh, bless him, he’s dutifully taking care of the unpleasant tasks that I normally deal with at home.  So, with his permission, consider this a guest post.

Today I puked.

Was I ill?  No, doesn’t seem like it.
Food poisoning?  No, can’t be that.

Oh wait..  It’s because I gagged whilst filling up a shopping bag with poo… And then vomited in the garden.

Yes, that would be it.

Gotta love the Midwest

Yesterday I landed in Illinois, drove to Wisconsin, and today I’m in Iowa.  Soaking up all the friends and family greatness.

It was 8°F when I landed yesterday, there was an odd sort of ice storm during the night, and then today it got up to 52°.  Guess I brought a bit of warmth with me to this frozen tundra!

Things are quite busy for the next week or so - in Iowa for the next 3 days, then in IL for 2ish, then back to my last 2 days in WI before heading home – so posting will be light to nonexistent. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my lovelies!

Boring post due to slight hangover

I didn’t participate in the office Secret Santa thingy this year. I think it’s because I was really busy and stressed when they sent around the email asking if people wanted to. I’ll do it next year, though. It looked like fun.

Last night was the office Christmas do. We worked a half day, then had lunch at a lovely little Italian restaurant called Capriccio’s. Started drinking upon arrival at 1:30 (a really tasty white wine spritzer – with fizzy lemonade instead of soda water) and continued right on through the first course, gift opening, main course, and dessert. By the time we were all leaving around 5? 6? suffice it to say I only had a very vague concept of what time it was.

I did have some really nice conversations with people, though. It’s good getting to know colleagues outside of the office environment. And I got a sweet and unexpected pressie after all!

Afterwards a bunch of us went bowling.. And there was more wine. And lots of laughs and gutter balls! It’s gotta be a Christmas miracle that I made it home on my own.

Loads of people had previously complained that we were only having a Christmas lunch and not a party. But it turned out to be quite like a party after all!

And this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane home!  Merry Christmas indeed!

Over 5 years of blogging

5 years ago today I was just finishing up my second-to-last semester of college and looking forward to Christmas break, where my mom and her friend at church were in cahoots towards getting me and her son together. I was finishing up my Christmas shopping, considering changing my look, and contemplating my future career calling.

4 years ago today I was on Christmas break from my job as a TA in a Life Skills classroom (which I loved) and back at my apartment after an early Christmas weekend with my family. I was wide awake at almost 4am, mere hours away from picking Ushwin up at the airport – our first in-person meeting after 2 months of falling hard for each other.

3 years ago today – in perhaps THE biggest jump from one year to the next – I was in Italy, on a surprise first anniversary early Christmas present vacation! I’d been living in London for 3 months and had just finished the first term of my MA while also working part time for IPOP. I was about to experience my first British Christmas, graciously hosted by the Browns.

2 years ago today – in another sizeable jump – I was newly married, with a teeny tiny addition to our family (in the form of Toby!) and a MA under my belt. Enjoying working part time and doing housewifely things. Ush had just come home after a week in hospital and we were planning a quiet Christmas/NYE as he was about to spend the next 2 months (almost) being housebound.

1 year ago today I was a couple months into my current job, enjoying it and feeling incredibly blessed. We were beginning our search for our own place, and eagerly anticipating a Christmas spent in the States.

And today, we have that place of our own, another addition to the family (in the form of Sadie), we have jobs that we’re good at and (shock!) actually enjoy. We’re healthy, we’ve got great friends and family. We couldn’t ask for more, really.

This post was inspired by this great man.
Thanks for encouraging my walk down memory lane, Vistra!

Tuesday Vent

I’m not saying this is about work.  It may or may not be.  I don’t want to blog about work and get fired for blogging about work, like Dooce.  But let’s face it – I spend 8 of my approximately 16 waking hours on 5 of 7 days there each week.  Sometimes you gotta talk about it.

So I’ll just be vague.

The crippling neck and shoulder pain I’m currently experiencing may or may not be caused by work stress.  And the rash that broke out on my neck/throat two days ago may or may not be caused by aforementioned work stress.

And aforementioned work stress may or may not refer to one specific individual at work.

Is all I’m saying.  Or not saying.

Not so much deadly, but definitely gross

This morning, to the tune of Toby’s snores and occasional groans of annoyance over our jolly banter at such an early hour, Ush and I invented a new game.

Sadie is very happy and cuddly first thing in the morning, though in a  drowsy/snuffly kind of way.  She army crawls up between us (assuming she’s not there already, which she usually is.. cheekily sharing my pillow), rolls onto her back, and wiggles around happily until we wake up enough to give her a tummy rub.

For some reason, between yawns, she also often sneezes during these times of the morning.. perhaps because of the excitement or because she’s on her back, who knows.  Ush and I have each gotten it in the face a time or two – a spray of Sadie sneeze.

So this morning, we invented “Russian Suelette.”  (Ush gets full credit here, actually.)  We each took turns – leaning in close, rubbing her belly, getting her a bit riled by saying “Hi Sadie Sue!” in that voice she likes – to see who would get sprayed first.

Somehow, she managed to ‘kill’ us both with one proverbial bullet.

The Dinner Dilemma

Wednesday night was easy – Ush went out for dinner with work mates, and I stayed in and ate some really wicked red pepper and lentil soup.  With crackers.  Because you really always need to have crackers with soup. IMHO.

Enter Thursday.  Hmm, what to do for dinner?  What to do???  I know!  I’ll consult Google!  After checking the fridge and freezer for possible ingredients, I enter “recipe chicken thighs carrots onions” because those are the staples that I have in my fridge/cupboard/freezer.

And lo!  The result!  Sweet and Sour Chicken.  And let me tell you, it was a big hit.  I’m salivating now just thinking about how tasty it was. Chicken coated in cinnamon/salt/pepper/paprika cooked with carrots and onions and a “sauce” of water/honey/lemon juice.  Served on a bed of rice.  AWESOME.

I have renamed the recipe because Ush said, although still awesome, it wasn’t like the typical Sweet and Sour Chicken you’d get from a Chinese takeaway.  And the gentlemen who posted the recipe online said he took it from an old Jewish recipe.  So, in this house, we call it “Jewish Chicken.”

I strongly recommend you try it.

warm fuzzies

I have quite a few stories set aside to tell you one of these days, but not right now.  It’s so busy at work, I’m tired of staring at a computer screen.  I also have some great photos to share – the camera on my phone is better than I thought it’d be! – just waiting for my microSD card and USB adaptor thingy to arrive.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this photo (sorry, I can’t give credit to anyone for it – I’ve received it in forwarded emails several times and just now Google Imaged it.) because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

That would NOT be pretty

If the office had a ceiling fan, the proverbial sh*t that I very nearly lost today would probably have hit it!

Bad things happen when we change PCs at work. Last time we did it, I became good friends with Alan* the IT guy because my macros were not communicating properly with my printer, etc, yadda yadda. Lots of phone calls and remote sessions (because our IT people aren’t on site, you see) where he tried to sort the stupid thing out.

This time around, we added the additional challenge of upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007. Hoooo boy, the network and the rest of our software did NOT like that idea! My new IT friend is Sam*. In fact, he may well be my best friend. I think he’s the one who prevented said sh*t from getting lost and hitting said non-existent fan. Granted, my PC isn’t yet totally problem-free, but that’s not to say he’s hasn’t tried! He’s been brilliant and I’m hoping another round tomorrow will have it all done.

In the meantime, I’m wondering which day(s?) next week I will do the much needed overtime… I know I don’t HAVE to and no one’s asked me to, but I hate being (what I feel is) so far behind. My job sharer has been out for the last 3 weeks, so I’ve been trying to keep up with all our normal work plus the work that I normally focus solely on for two days each week when she’s in! It’s too much. I’m drowning a wee bit.

And there are important things on the near as well as somewhat distant horizon, so my sh*t needs to be intact! Figuratively, of course.

* names have been changed to protect the innocent

Sleeping Bulldog

The last viral YouTube clip that made me laugh this hard (ie: the tears pouring from my eyes, can’t breathe, making weird shrieky noises, going to be coughing for the rest of the night kind of laugh) was the one with the sneezing panda.

I’m very sure that not everyone will find this as funny as I did, but that’s nothing new