kolalakitty

03:45 pm: Busy Busy Busy
( House!!! (finding, buying, and the ensuing craziness) )

( NYC )

Other than house stuff.. not much going on. Acen went okay. AI is coming up in August. John's family is coming to visit in August. Carol and Matt are coming to visit in August. John and I are going with David, Jen, Breanne (coworker) and her hubby, and one of Jen's friends to the Dells in late July. There is a company picnic on the 13th of June (we'll go after we get done with the carpet cleaning and phone stuff). John and I, David and Jen, are going to see Bill Engvall on the on June 20th. I'm probably forgetting more, but oh well.

John and I hit 2 yrs on Saturday. 2 years people. Seriously. He's not getting a gift (and he didn't get me a gift either) cause of house stuff and our NYC trip, but I did get him a card.

02:49 pm: A week
So there's a lot of stuff that's happened. And just some of it leads up to the week I've had.

Speedy-rewind. I won an iPod Nano at the work Christmas Party. And Christmas at home was good. I got to drive through another snow storm to get home. Though, this one wasn't as bad as last year. John had a horrible time getting home though since the storm hit southern IL where his train needed to go. A bunch of the earlier trains were seriously delayed or canceled, and John's was delayed from 5pm to 11pm. He finally got home at 6am. I got to see lots of people. There was a trip up to Ames in another blizzard with Jessi H and we all got to see Macay and Andy's apartment, and we all learned that Jessi H is moving to Minn. this summer so we'll be able to see her more often (Amy's house is the perfect "middle ground" between Minneapolis and Chicago...).

New Years was fun too. David and his roommate Sara came over. We went to dinner at the tasty Greek restaurant by our house called Opa! Then we stopped by Baker's Square for pie and Dominick's for drinks and came back to the house to play Mario Party for the Wii and to play Settler's of Catan. Sara got it for David for Christmas. John loves that game. I hadn't played before.

January was pretty uneventful. John did some traveling for work. And David, Sara, John, and I went to see SpamALot downtown at the end of the month. And I did a shit-ton of traveling for work. Including an overnight trip to Atlanta, GA. I also started taking aerobic swimming classes again on Tues nights.

February was good. John and I hashed back and forth whether or not we wanted to move this summer or not. And if we did want to move, did we want to find another place to rent, or did we want to buy. We decided on potentially buying if we can find something we like, and the house hunt has begun. John and I also had a really good Valentine's Day. John got me flowers, and a beautiful ring (he had it custom made! and he had me search for it which was fun), and we went out to dinner at really tasty Italian restaurant called Bottaio and watched movies at home. I got John a cute little frog prince and the first Settler's game. I also made John another chocolate rum cake for his birthday. I made it a week before though so it would have time for the fumes to wear off. John got an expansion for Settler's as his gift. David came over and we had dinner and played Settler's til late.

John and I started the house hunt the last weekend in Feb. The first time out was.. disheartening. We had seen some houses online and liked a couple. We were disappointed in all of them. And one of them actually caused me physical pain! We had been down in the basement looking at the heating and water heater. We went back upstairs to look at the 2nd floor bedrooms and I had a hold of the hand rail. It fell off the wall, whacked me in the hand, and bent my ring and left a bruise on my finger. When we got done that day, John felt like we'd never find anything in our price range and we'd up living in a tiny condo or having to get a townhouse and pay association fees.

The day after we took my ring to get repaired. The store said it would take a week cause they had to send it out. The week went by uneventfully. Last Friday we went to pick it up. Immediately upon them taking it out of the shipping paper I realized it wasn't "fixed". They straightened it some, but it's still bent. They said that they couldn't do anything more for it without completely resetting the stones because of how it was bent, and since we hadn't paid anything for the first repair, they weren't doing it. John says "now it's even more special.. there definitely isn't another like it in the world... but don't wear it when we go to look at houses again..." We left to go to dinner and John noticed that someone had hit my passenger door and left a dent as well as white paint on the door. Great... so far others have hit the doors with theirs and left paint, but the car wasn't dented yet. The car is only 7 months old!

Last Sunday we went to look at more houses. I left the ring at home. We saw houses in Waukegan (we decided after seeing just 2 that while we like the sizes and styles of the homes, they need too much work and we don't like the town/city as a whole so we're staying away) and then headed to Gurnee to look at some houses there. We're almost to the next house and I'm following the realtor. He gets over in the right lane to turn. I followed. Apparently the right lane comes with a MASSIVE DEEP pothole. And considering my luck.. I hit it. Car went *THUNK*. We got to the house and John was worried I'd blown the tire. It was fine, but the car had a really rough ride after that. We looked at the rest of the houses that day and decided we like 3 of them, one in Wildwood (low cost, low taxes, needs work), one in Grayslake (med. price, med. taxes, move in ready but small), and one in Mundelein (high price, high taxes, no yard, but will be worth the most in the end).

Wednesday I took my car to the dealership to have it checked. It was still riding rough, and I noticed that the car kept wanting to go left when I was driving straight. Turned out that I needed a new wheel. Well.. 4 new wheels actually. That pothole bent the front passenger wheel so bad that the guy at the dealership was going to take the wheel away and put the spare on cause I shouldn't be driving on it - it could cause more damage if I did. The other 3 wheels we slightly bent and would need replacing eventually, but could be gotten by on for a bit. He gave me 2 options. I could either 1) have him order a new wheel to match the other 3, he'd put the spare on, and call me when the part was in. It would be $635 for the new wheel and the alignment to put it all back together. But I might also need a new tire for that wheel since he wasn't sure what the tire on the bent wheel would do - it might not seal properly. So it might be even more money. 2) when looking up my wheel, he found there was a set of 4 "barely used" wheels AND tires that the Parts Dept was trying to get rid of and would sell for $500. They came off another Jetta - someone bought the car, didn't like the set and wanted something different. The store swapped the new ones for these and kept these to sell. So they aren't "brand new", but they have less than 50 miles of use on them. This option, with the alignment to go with it would be $715. Obviously, I chose Option #2. I then told John he was going to be doing the driving for errands and when we go out house hunting in the future. I also called around to get the claim form I need to be reimbursed for the repairs (turns out I have to talk to the state).

I also tried to get my to figure out my prescription refill stuff since I got new insurance this year. It's turning out to be a pain in the ass. Who knows how it's going turn out. Caremark says the Doc needs to call/fax them. My doc wants Caremark to fax her. Great... I may end up having to drive down to the doc to get paper prescripts and having to fax them to Caremark.

John and I are going to look at more houses tomorrow. Who knows what'll happen (will John lose a tire? Will either one of us be injured?) or what we'll find.

My aunt moved to a new house. That's been.. stressful. I have to help her sort through stuff when I'm home for Easter in April.

John and I will be back in Des Moines for Easter in April (4/10-13). John and I will be going to St. Louis for Orthodox Easter the weekend after that (4/17-4/20).

Con is coming up in May. Still waiting on a few people to register.

John and I saw Watchmen last Friday. It was... odd. I wasn't sure what to expect. I read about the comics online, but I haven't read the actual comic (I'm still waiting to get it from the library.. I'm 15 of 20 in line..). Definitely not the typical "super hero flick" though.

David P and his boyfriend Steve came to visit last week too. David somehow managed to get 3 days off, Wed-Fri, and Steve was on spring break, so they came out on Thurs and left Fri morn. We went to Portillos and just generally hung out and had fun. I hope they come back soon - Steve likes board games and card games so I'd have someone to play against (since no one here will play games with me).

I haven't been sleeping well lately (I can't fall asleep, I wake up during the night, I'm super tired during the day, can't seem to wake up in the morning). And I've felt moody and stressed. It's probably all related and I'll feel better when more things are dealt with. I think. I'm not taking it out on anyone, I just don't feel quite like me.

And with that.. I'm gonna go. It's almost time to leave work.

07:16 pm: ?
My aunt just called. Apparently one of her cats was just put down. Dusty was the youngest. Apparently he had some sort of heart disease and his lung collapsed and started taking on fluids. 2 days later, she waits long enough that she can't take him to the regular (cheaper) vet, and has to take him to the emergency vet. She doesn't have the money to treat him ($1500+ with no guarantee that he'll live), so she had him put down (and she really doesn't have the money for that either).

I'm not sure how I feel. Kind of a mix of emotions. I make sure that my cats see the vet regularly. Get their shots. Get checkups. So that I know what problems my cats might be having. And if they are acting sick, I take them to the regular vet right away. I take the time off if I have to. I find some way to pay for it.

My aunt doesn't have the money cause she's blowing it on my cousin. Even though he's living with her and she's not supporting his "habit" and CA lifestyle anymore, she's still spending all her money on him. So she still doesn't have the money for bills or food or gas for her car (which she needs for work since she's an in-home care nurse). She has no savings. She can't afford to buy herself new clothes (which is why every Mother's Day, Birthday, and Christmas, I'm having to buy her clothes).

I'm sad that the cat got sick and died. I'm thankful and happy that my cats are healthy and safe. But I'm pissed that it's because of my cousin. Yet another life is ruined because of his selfishness and greed.

05:09 pm: Cutest LBD Ever!
I'm nearly finished Christmas shopping. I have a couple more things to get - uniform pants for my aunt (but we'll get those when I'm home for xmas since I can't get them here and she knows a place that sells them in WDM), the last gift for John, and I still need to finish the homemade gifts (Mary's, cookies, pretzels, Nancy and Carol's). All the gifts that are finished or purchased are all wrapped and under the tree.

The decorating is nearly complete. The living room is "finished". The lights we hung up in the front window have a short in them so the greens don't work. I think tonight I'm going to swap out that string for the working string. If John ever gets that string working again, then we'll put the other string in our bedroom, but at least we'll have the lights working in the living room. Everything else is up. It's nice. Mike (the roommate) seems bipolar/two-faced about it. He tells me he's happy we're decorating. He tells John he likes that we're doing something. He tells both of us he likes that we did it and it looks good. But he tells people on the phone that he doesn't like it. WTF? Whatever, I don't care. He's being a dick anyway (about another couple of things) so I'm just staying out of his way and taking what he says with a grain of salt.

John and I went to his parents for Thanksgiving. It sounded like they wanted me to come for Christmas too. I'll be coming home though. I'll be in late on the 23rd (like midnight), and I'm coming back to Chicago on the 28th in the afternoon. I really hope I'm not driving through a blizzard like last year. That sucked. Anyway. Thanksgiving was good. Good food, the pies I brought went over well. I also got to meet his yiayia (grandma) and other aunt. I've met Nikki before, but never Kathy. We watched all of his family's old film movies. We went to the St. Louis Zoo. The penguins splashed me when I was trying to take pictures and video of them. Silly penguins. We went to dinner on Friday and John's mom was tipsy (a glass of good wine without food...) and I got the official tipsy mom seal of approval to marry John. Poor Jeannie's bf did not fair so well. "He's not marriage material" because he "doesn't want kids" and "what's the point of getting married if you aren't going to have kids." Whee... Thankfully, Jeannie's boyfriend was not at dinner with us at the time. John and I also went to his friend Jarod's (and his wife Diane) place. I got to play with their kitties and I met John and Jarod's friend Mark and Mark's wife. The drive to his parents was great on Wed night, but the drive back to Chicago sucked due to snow, stupid people, and bumper to bumper traffic the entire way up I55.

Last week I bought this dress at Target. But then I saw this one at Torrid and returned the first one. It's.. the cutest LBD ever. I'm going to wear it this weekend for the Christmas party. And apparently I also have permission to buy this dress too in either black or red. John said I can't get any more shirts or pants unless I get rid of some of my old stuff, but he is all for me getting more dresses. Apparently I don't have enough of those? I might buy the Norma Kamali dress after I get paid again (hell, maybe I'll get both.. I like the black, but I've heard red is sexy, and I've been told I look good in red too).

This past weekend, on the 6th actually, was John and my year and a half. We slept in late, then we did some shopping (yea! LBD!), and went out to dinner at this place called Austin's. It was pretty good, and the parking was packed because they also have a nightclub type thing attached to the back. So even though the restaurant was nearly empty at 9pm, the other side of the building was busting. Got home and I read while he played Wii Fit.

John is in Souix City, IA for the week for work. He flew to Omaha yesterday and will be coming back on Friday.

Nancy joined Facebook.

Spamalot is coming back to Chicago in 09. And so is Rent (with some of the original Broadway cast even!). I want to see Rent. There are a few others I want to see too, but we'll have to wait and see.

Last week, John and I went over to David's to help him get some stuff organized. Rod is moving out and so now David has to show the place to perspective people and it's still not entirely moved in, and a complete bachelor pad where it is. We helped him put feet on the living room furniture, as well as move some stuff around in the living room. It fits much better now. David is also working on getting the basement/den wired for cable so he doesn't have a random cable cord running down the stairs to the den for the modem. We're still trying to wire the 2nd bedroom - David is having problems drilling the hole in the attic to run the cable down. We've already cut the hole in the wall in the room and put in the box and we have the faceplate. He's going to get the tools to do the hole from his brother eventually.. (This is David we're talking about...) David want's me to come over this week and help him some more since John is out of town.

Tonight I am going to the Y. I need to register John and I for a swimming class and then I'll work out for a bit. Then it's home to swap out those xmas lights in the front window, eat dinner, and then up to the office to work on cleaning in there more. I'm still sorting paperwork. I'm down to one bag of stuff to sort, then just put it all in the file cabinet. Whee!

Anyway.. time to go..

02:52 pm: Midnight and happiness
Since September there hasn't been too much going on.

John and I were home in IA the weekend after I got the car for a wedding. John has decided that the people who made the cake for that wedding will make the cake for ours. Chocolate cake all the way. And John got to meet the infamous Bob. And apparently Bob and Bob's wife approve. We tried to hang out with people but Joshy was the only one available. We did see DiDee for a few minutes before we left town on Sunday though cause I needed to give her something.

A few weeks ago, John and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Sadly, they had a kids trick or treating thing that day and as such some of the exhibits were closed. Most of them (well, actually, all but 1) reopened in the afternoon. Only one that was closed was the penguins. We were sad. So was another family who were apparently in Chicago for vacation and came to the zoo specifically to see the penguins. We went to Ras Dashen afterwards for dinner. We used public transpo for the whole day. It was nice and cheap (and meant we didn't have to fight for parking at the zoo), but added a ton of time to everything. Metra into the city (1hr), bus to the zoo (30min), bus to dinner (1hr), and el back to the Metra (1hr), and finally Metra back home (1hr). We caught the 10am Metra to the city and got back to Libertyville at 10pm. 12 hours, and 4.5 were spent on public transpo.

We went to David's Aunt and Uncle's place for a Halloween party last Friday. That was fun. They both remember me, and David's uncle gave him crap for not dating me again. Poor David. They tried to pawn food off on us when we left, but we managed to escape with only a handful of KitKat bars (thanks to John).

Jolyn was back in town about a month or so ago. David, Jolyn, John, and I went to a haunted house. We waited in line for an hour or so (maybe 2? I don't remember). The house took about 30 min to get through. We went through a chainlink fence maze that they were using strobe lights in. David had been leading the group, but I ended up getting pushed to the front because I could actually see where we were going (David has night blindness issues so the strobes were fucking with him). We went through the maze so fast that the people running the house ended up opening a side door in the maze and sending us back through it again.

John and I went to a pumpkin patch the same weekend as the haunted house and picked out pumpkins. Then before Halloween we carved them. John hadn't done that since he was a kid. He was soo excited. It was cute. I drew the shapes on them and John cut a cat out on his and I cut out a witch. My pumpkin had a "cancerous" spot though. It looked really odd on the outside, then when I was scrapping it out it was all mushy in that area. Oh well. They looked really good when we got done though.

I handed out candy on Halloween. They haven't given out candy before. I managed to give out most of it before John and I left for the party.

John and I are taking the dance class again this fall. We've got 3 weeks left. John is going to miss next week though (swing) cause he's going out of town for two days for work. John was also in Canada for a week in September for training for work. But most of the time he's home.

I think I've decided to name the car Midnight. And the mascot shall be a black cat.

It's 17 months today for John and me. Crazy!

I went as a cat for Halloween. We had a Halloween thing at work. I wore the fancy cat ears that I got at Acen this year, and the tail that I had in high school. It was cute. David and I went out to lunch - I got the strangest looks.

I had my annual physical a few weeks ago too. That was fun. Everything is okay. Doctor wants me to start taking fish oil pills though. Great...

Going along with the physical thing, I scheduled my dentist appointment as well for the 18th of Oct. The dentist called and moved it to 10/11. Then called and moved it to 10/15. Then called and moved it again to this Saturday. I'm really hoping it doesn't get moved again, cause that's annoying.

My company is changing their health insurance. They are no longer offering Blue Cross Blue Shield. This is annoying. The company said it was due to "low enrollment". Most of us believe it was just too expensive for them. So we all have to switch to Aetna PPO (or one of their HSAs) or Unicare HMO. I like the simplicity of the HMO and that my meds are partially covered under that plan. However, no one in Lake County (where I live) takes Unicare (PPO or HMO), or HMOs. I like my current doctor but she's down in Addison. If I need to go see her, I have to take a half day off from work and drive 45 min to an hour down there. And if I'm really sick? That just sucks. So I was thinking about changing to a doc closer to here. So I had to go with the PPO in order to go to the doc. It's "cheaper" per month than the HMO (but still more expensive than this year), but I have a deductible and all that other crap, and none of my meds are on the formulary so my meds are going from $100/3 mon with BCBS to $160/3 mon with Aetna. But I have found a doctor up here and etc. John is also going to go to the same group (though he'll have a diff doc), so we'll be going to the same place. John actually called them today and registered and set up an appointment. He's getting his blood drawn on Sat morn and he'll have a physical on the 17th.

Work stuff is going okay. Major project rolled out last week. Though we're still tying up loose ends. One of the vendors are being a bunch of dicks and we've finally found a monetary way to twist their arms and get them to do what we've asked.

Upcoming things: I'm going with John to his family's for Thanksgiving. Our company Christmas party is scheduled for the 13th of Dec. John is going to be gone in Dec for a couple days for work. Kitties are going to the vet on Nov. 15 for their annual checkup and vaccs. I changed the vet to one up here. They will not be pleased...

And that's about it.

11:04 am: Name that car!
Back in high school, I had need of a car to get me to school and to work and everything else I did. On May 19th, 1999, I picked up Otis from Des Moines Chrysler Plymouth. Thanks to the trust my mother left for me, Otis was paid off in early 2001. Otis went through college with me. The move to Chicago (and damn was that an expensive move for him..) and many moves from place to place in the 4 years following. Otis made countless trips to IA and other places for visits and vacations. In the 9 1/2 years I had the car, Otis saw many things and had lots of memories.

But Otis had an expensive habit. See.. Otis liked to go through brakes at an alarming rate. And earlier this year, Otis had some sensor issues that could have ended up being a very costly repair had I listened to the first place and not taken it for a 2nd option. I also learned that Otis would need another new battery for the winter as the one he currently possessed would not make it past the summer. These types of problems have been coming up more frequently than before and starting to cost more than the worth of the car (especially since the clear coat on the paint had started to chip and Otis was starting to look odd and thus depreciating the value considerably even though Otis still ran relatively well).

So, last Thursday evening, 9/11, I took him with me to the VW dealership, and I traded him in for a new car. I now own (or am at least making payments on) a new 2009 VW Jetta SE model in "Blue Graphite". It's nearly navy with black specks in it that make it sparkle. And now it needs a name.


Leave comments with name suggestions.

02:03 pm: Mass Update Round 2
When last we met, it was right after John and my anniversary. Many things have happened.

In June, John and I went to 6 Flags with David and his girlfriend, Jolyn. We had a lot of fun - it rained and was a little cold in the morning and a lot of people left the park, so we got to ride everything we wanted with little to no line.

Also, John and I made the trek out to Omaha for the family reunion. We stayed with Ang and Justin for the weekend. Fun times were had by all.

Nancy also moved in June. The flooding caused a lot of damage to the house and it became inhabitable.

At the end of June, John lost his job. After a month of applying to various places and a few interviews, he was offered a job down in Rosemont. He now works less than a mile from Acen. I do believe that I'll be sending him to pick up the badges next year (if we have them at the pick up window and don't all get them mailed).

In July, Becky and Brett, the people who's wedding we went to in April came up from St. Louis to Chicago for the 4th. Calling Thurs night to say they'd be here on Fri. Thankfully they had a hotel booked in Chicago. We hung out with them on Sat and Sun for a bit.

The weekend after that, Katie came from the city out to hang. We played Zelda for hours and just generally hung out and had a good time.

I went home at the end of the month to help my aunt clean the basement. Over 200 black garbage bags of garbage later.... It's clean. Or.. at least, if it floods again, everything else will be safe. I got to see Amy, Shane, Emily, Joshy, Julian, Jessie, Archana, and DiDee. I got to play with Veenya, Archana's new baby. I returned from Iowa with a cooler full of AE dairy products, a bunch of other groceries that I can't find here, all of my mothers good china and silver (which replacing missing/broken pieces is going to cost me a small fortune - mostly the silver), a line feed printer, as well as a few other sentimental items that I was able to save from the basement. And I had to leave behind two furniture pieces that were given to me. They wouldn't fit in the car with everything else. I'll be collecting those when John and I are out in DSM in Sept for a wedding.

Last weekend, John's family was in town. I spent Thurs night, Fri night, and Sat morn getting the place ready. Things were scrubbed/cleaned/organized that haven't been touched in months. I didn't finish all the things I'd wanted to, but I got it soo much closer to done than I thought I would. And all the various little things that I've been putting off were completed too. John and I need to make another storage unit run, so perhaps we'll do that next week. But anyway, John's family arrived on Sat afternoon. We went to a Greek festival in Long Grove (a bit lackluster sadly), then out to dinner at Opa! on Sat night. Sunday was a trip to the city to go to La Creperie and then to the Cubs/Cardinals game. Cubs won, and John's dad was very sad - we ended up leaving the game during the 7th inning as it was apparent that the Cardinals were not going to win. John gave me crap for being a baseball fan, and for rooting for the Cubs. Monday we went to the Chicago Botanic Garden and then to the IMAX version of the Dark Knight movie. They left early on Tues morn. John managed to work it so that only his sister made it upstairs to see the office. No one else made it upstairs, and his sister wouldn't have cared anyway. So they still don't know.

This weekend is AnimeIowa in Iowa City. I've heard from Nicole, and she has stated that she and Kate will be coming for Con as they both have the weekend off. Macay stiffed me on a visit when I was home in July, but has promised to try and come on Friday night to visit (even if it's just for a little bit cause she's moving on Sat morn) and she's bringing the infamous Andy. John has to work on Fri (even though he told them he needed it off when he was hired), but they said he could leave a little early, so we wont be there in the afternoon, but will instead be arriving in the evening, probably around 8.

Work has been going okay for me. Projects and tickets. That about sums it up.

David bought a house in July. John and I helped him clean and get his stuff moved over there. He had issues with his water, but those have finally been resolved. Now he just needs to finish getting unpacked and etc. I wish him luck. He says he still has stuff to give to Amy. But he's bringing it with us in Sept when we go out to Amy's for Labor Day.

Yes. This year we will once again attempt to make the trek to Nashua for Labor Day weekend. We'll be coming out on Friday night and then returning to IL late on Monday. People should try to make it to Nashua for a giant party like we had last July or a couple years ago at New Years. Seriously. Fun to be had by all!

John and I are going to DSM in mid Sept for a wedding. It's the 13th. We'll be leaving here on Fri and returning on Sunday. A short weekend. Most likely no visiting time unless it's like.. breakfast on Saturday.

I've used up most of my vacation days. I've got 5 left. 1 to be used on Friday. 1 to be used the Friday after Thanksgiving. 2 to be used around Xmas. David has told me that if I need time, he'll give me some of his vacation. We shall have to see.

Well, I should get off to do something. This post has gotten long enough...

EDIT: I forgot to mention. My old company finally paid me for the work that I did in April. Apparently the HR guy that had been giving me the runaround got the can and they found the unpaid invoice sitting in their system. Jen emailed me to find out if it had ever been paid, I told her no and explained all that had been going on and about 3 days later, I got a check. It would seem that they've disabled my access to the system though, so apparently they won't/don't need my help anymore. Part of me is sad, as this is the end of that, and part of me is happy, cause this has been a pain in the ass. But this still ultimately means that taxes next year will suck ass. Ugh.

02:53 pm: Mass update
So even though I can access LJ from the office.. I've been crazy busy and haven't had time to do so.

Con came and went. Tons of people. It was fun. I bought some new kitty ears and a set of moogle ears. They are cute.

Went to San Diego the weekend before Con to spend the weekend with John. We went to the zoo. Lots and lots of pictures. Pandas were seen. Pandas rock.

Over Memorial Day, John and I went to his parents place again. We went horse back riding and we biked 16 miles or so in the rain. I met a couple of his friends - Jarod and Diane. Diane looks a hell of a lot like Amy. Upon turning to greet her (I was doing something at the kitchen sink), my first thought was, "Wtf is Amy doing here??" But they were cool.

John and I celebrated 1 year together on Friday. We went to Galena, IL for the weekend. I forgot my camera, so the Thurs we got into town we hit up the 24hr Walmart and got a discount 35mm camera ($6.. seriously..). Friday we walked around down on Main, then went to some of the historal places. We came back to the B&B cause it was hot and humid and we were both tired and took a short nap before getting up to go to dinner. We had a carriage ride around Main before they dropped us off at dinner. We ate and then went back to the B&B for the night. John got me a pretty locket - sadly it had a blemish, so he took it back to exchange it and ended up getting me a different one. Very similar to the first though and also pretty. I got him a rack for his bike and a tire pump for the bike too. I also made him a story book which he thought was great. :-) I was kinda worried cause I know how much he dislikes my love for books. But I spent a lot of time on it and I made up the story and drew all the artwork myself as well as made the covers and put it all together. Saturday we went wine tasting. Sun we went to the Mississippi River Museum.

John and I were supposed to go back to Des Moines at the end of the month for a reunion. I'm not sure if we're going to go now though. Gas sucks. John doesn't want to go. Nancy told me today that she's going to have to have a bunch of work done to the sewer line on the house as well as the roof due to all the rain and flooding they've been getting so we don't have anywhere to stay. (No, we will not stay with my aunt - even if she had all the room in the world - she'd drive me batty).

June 25th, John and I are going to Six Flags. Let's hope that we get to ride more than 2 rides (we're going midweek when attendance should be lower and actually get there in the morning as opposed to freaking 5pm) and that I don't hurt myself again.

I did some work for my old job back in April. After months of calling and emailing about getting paperwork filled out so I can get paid and continually getting the brush off.. I've given up. That's $150 that I'm never going to see and almost 7 hours of my life that I'll never get back. I've also pretty much told them that unless they pay me and get that paperwork to me, then they can just go to hell. I'm not their employee anymore, and I'm not fixing their screw ups for free.

Other things going on this summer? My aunt is moving this fall. I'm going to help her go through stuff the last week in July. John's family is coming into town the 2nd weekend in Aug. His mom thinks we're sleeping in seperate rooms. This will be interesting. The weekend after that is AI. That should be fun. There is a wedding that John and I are supposed to go to for a friend of Nancy in the fall.

Carol is talking about coming out this summer to visit - basically it would be the week after the reunion. Only for a few days, but they'd stay with us and I'd show them the sights, etc. She's not sure if they are really going to come or not. I told her I needed to know by June 20 at the very latest.

Anyway.. I think I'm gonna get out of work early today - boss isn't here and most everyone else is gone too. When I got there this morning there were 8 of us. Now there are 6, and 2 more people are leaving in the next half hour.

Oh. If Walter sees this: Happy Birthday Wembly! =^.^=

12:11 pm: Crazy times
Lets see. It's been a month.

John and I went to the wedding. It was interesting. Becky is slightly crazy. I got to meet Walter and Bill, two of John's friends. Walter will be coming to con in May. That should be fun. John's parent's place is BEAUTIFUL! We left Chicago on Thurs night and got there about midnight. Friday I got to see his dad's clinic and we went into the city to see the City Museum. We also went to Ted Drewes. Saturday was the wedding. Sunday we had "Easter dinner" with his family. His aunt Nikki, uncle Dave, and cousins Max and Christopher came over. They took some family pictures (and I got included in the Warmbrodt family picture too). I've posted pictures that I took on Google.

John and I will hit 11 months in a couple weeks (5/6). Seems like forever, but not in a bad way. It's nice. We're going to go to Galena, IL for our anniversary on 6/6. I've booked our stay at a bed and breakfast called the Snoop Sister's Inn. We both took the Friday off which is our actual anniversary, and we'll drive out there on Thurs night, then we'll come back home on Sunday evening/afternoon.

Con is in a few weeks as well (May 16-18). There will be a lot of people appearing at the townhouse. Joshy most likely will not be coming because his car blew up and he had to get a new one. Walter and his friend Matt are staying with us on Thurs night. Amy, Luke, Shane, Terrance, Carol, and Carol's boyfriend are all going to be staying with us as well. Julian, Mandar, Jess, and Zach are staying at a hotel closer to con - they'll meet up with us on Friday. We have plenty of floor space and the spare bed in the office. We're down a couch this year though as I threw one of mine away when I moved. There is an inflatable mattress (queen size) though for potential use.

John is out of town for work. He was gone last week, and this week. He'll be gone for the next 3 weeks as well. Mon-Thurs. It sucks. He'll miss my birthday (or most of it, as he doesn't get into town until 1130 that night), and our 11 month (which falls on a Tuesday). It also messes with the con stuff as I was hoping he'd be home to let people in when they arrived, so that I could go and pick up our badges on Thurs night. Julian was going to do it, but now he and his car wont be in till like 11pm cause Mandar has to work. Amy isn't sure what time they'll be getting in. John also wont be getting back until late that night either, so it's going to be a long day.

But going along with this, John is in Long Beach, CA. And he's going to stay there for one weekend, and I'm going to fly out there and spend the weekend with him. We're still trying to work out the money and logistics stuff, but it'll be the weekend before con. I've already got the time off from work. But it'll be the first time that we've spend the night away from home without other people around. I'm looking forward to it.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing lately. The living room is done. Completely done. The kitchen is 95% done. The bedroom is done. The office.. is coming along. I got the mess of stuff that John made (he piled all my stuff into the closet... cords, papers.. etc) sorted and most of it put away. Now I'm sorting through all the paperwork I've collected over the last few years. I had David help me carry the file cabinet from the garage up to the office so I can sort through that. Once I get done, the papers that I'm actually going to keep will go into there. I don't know if the file cabinet will stay in the office though, or make the trek back down to the garage. Once the office is clean, it's time to go deal with the garage. Mike moved most of the boxes into there and stacked everything. While that would be great normally.. he mixed up the piles of things that I had sorted of stuff going to the storage unit, stuff that needed to be unpacked some before going to storage, and stuff that was actually going to stay in the garage. Now I have to figure it all out again, which means going through most of the boxes. But I've discovered that I'm actually missing some stuff (my jewelry and some DVDs), so I suppose it's okay, hopefully I'll find all that stuff.

Well, I should probably get back to work. Whee...

03:40 pm: Easter with friends and family
The last two weekends have been crazy.

Went to Archana's baby shower last Sat. It was good to see her. I haven't seen her since Christmas 2005. Seriously. I had her gift in 2006, but she didn't have time to meet. I tried to meet with her in 2007, but she didn't answer her phone. So I gave her both her gift for the shower and her xmas gift. Diana, Joshy, and I went out after that. It was fun. We went to dinner, then to Joshy's place. I spent a lot of time at his place the last two weekends.

I worked on Carol's internet. It took 2 hours to get the internet back up. Her router was pissed. But it's working again. And John helped me figure out how to get the remote assistance working again. Nancy's computer was a bit more trouble though. I ended up having to bring her tower back with me to Chicago. Otis got 29.5mpg that weekend.

Spent last week running errands and fixing things. We finally got the pictures up in the bathroom. We tried to put up the curtains in the bedroom, but that didn't go so well. I have to patch the holes and we'll try again. We also got the wedding gift for Becky and Bret (John's friends who are getting married in April). I'll have to dig through the wrapping paper and see if I still have any wedding paper. If not, I'll have to get some. But anyway. I also got a program that Amy recommended to get the files off of Nancy's angry HDD. It's called Recover My Data. It's 70$, and well worth the cost. I got Nancy's computer back up and running and it went back with us on Friday.

Friday we had another freaking snow storm. They closed my office at 4 though, so I got to leave early. I'd planned to leave at 5 (an hr earlier than normal), but it was nice to get home even earlier. I stopped for gas on the way home and checked the oil (still no burned oil..) I shoveled the walkway and part of the driveway (to make loading the car easier), then I got the cats set up for the weekend, loaded the car, and we were on our way at 6. Got home at midnight.

Saturday was fun. John and I finally got up at around 1130 or so. We ate, got ready to head out and went with Didee to the mall. We saw Josh at work and made arrangements for when he got off. Then we went shopping. John and I both got new shoes, I got some clothes, John bought some chocolate, and Didee and I did some window shopping at the jewelry store (much to John's chagrin). Then we went to Best Buy so that Didee could buy a CD, then it was back to the mall to pick up Joshy. We headed up to Ames to walk around campus. It started snowing really bad while we were up there. We did a quick walk around, then headed to Hickory Park. We came back to town, and back to Joshy's. At midnight we went home for the night.

Sunday I got up at 6, got ready for church, then got John up at 645 to get ready. We left at 730 for the 8am service. It was nice. Everyone freaking recognized me, and I sang up with the choir. The director asked me to stay for the rest of the services and sing with them. I turned him down. We went home and I said goodbye to Carol. I wouldn't see her before we left on Monday due to her work schedule and when we were leaving. Then at noon we went to lunch downtown with Nancy's sister Mary and their niece Karina. Then back home. People weren't due to arrive at Nancy's till 530, so after Karina left at 3, John and I took a nap. Jessie T came over at 5 and we just hung out until Amy and Shane showed up. At 7 we went to dinner at the Machine Shed. We ordered waaay too much food and we all had leftovers. Then after a stop at Nancy's to drop those off, we went down "the fun road" and then to Joshy's again. Jessie went home at 11 because she had to work on Monday, and we left at 1245. Amy and Shane had to drive home, and Shane had to work in the morning.

Monday we slept till 12 or so, then got up and got ready to leave. We got B-Bops for lunch and headed out at 3. We got home at 9 last night.

All in all, it went well. My aunt and John got along. She didn't say anything to me, and he didn't say anything either, outside of trying to associate some of the things I've said about her with the fact that she was the one he just met. He did okay in church. He was noting differences between the Lutheran and Greek Orthadox services he was brought up with and the Methodist service. Karina did okay with John too. She's autistic, so Nancy wasn't sure what she'd do, but she was good.

Well.. it's time to go. It's tax night. Oh joy.