I can't resist tags!

Katie and, Missy, tagged me for my Things of Four. So here goes!

Four jobs I have held in life:

• My first job was at a Showbiz Pizza, currently known as Chucky Cheese. I was a cashier, not the ape wearing the mouse costume.
• Job finder for people on work release and parole. LOVED it! Really.
• Office facilitator for a law firm in Memphis. It's a fancy title for someone who orders stuff, sets up rooms for conferences, and makes sure there's lots of supplies.
• My current job - customer care trainer.

Four movies I have watched more than once:

• Grease - my all time fave!
• A Fish Called Wanda
• Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas. This is a must see every Christmas Day!
• Eddie and The Cruisers. Campy 80's flick, but I love it.

Four places I have vacationed:

• Florida (isn't it everyone's go-to destination?)
• Washington DC (I was like 11)
• Cape Hatteras
• Seattle, WA

Four of my favorite foods:

• Prime rib - my all time high
• Shrimp - any way you can make it, I'll probably eat it
• Steak - bring on the beef!
• My mom's Thanksgiving Day stuffing

Four places I would rather be:

• Cancun
• Cape Hatteras
• In my jammies (does that count?)
• On a yacht somewhere

Four hobbies I engage in regularly:

• Reading
• Playing Sims2 (total addict! I have all of the expansion packs)
• Watching TV
• Surfing the net

Ok ... now to tag 4 more people ...

infertilityjustsucks
Ally
lub
Erin

Get crackin', ladies!

I'm still here ...

To say I haven't been busy would be to say I'm a size 2.

It just isn't true.

Work has been crazy. I have new hires hitting the floor, QRs to do and review, meetings to attend, and the last bit of work on the projects I was assigned (due tomorrow!). And more new hires starting on Tuesday. Plus all the usual admin stuff that goes along with all of that.

So I've brought my laptop home each night this week and worked. I'm on it now, as a matter of fact!

But on to other stuff ...

I still haven't gotten my period. Remember the one I said I knew was on the way because I had my usual signs? Yeah well ... no. The signs poofed and it hasn't shown up yet. But I know it's lurking there. The signs come and go and now I have pressure. Pressure usually means it's imminent.

Which would be a big fat "about damned time!" since it's almost a full 2 months past due.

I've felt twinges here and there - the sharp pinch near my ovaries. But no blood.

No, I'm not pregnant. I remember what it felt like to be pregnant - always exhausted and always hungry, with sore boobs and pants that didn't fit. I'm not that. I'm just late.

I'm blaming the stress of moving and my work load.

Saturday is my nephew's birthday. The one that was murdered a couple months ago. 19. I can't stand it.

The last little bit ...

Well, we're finally, completely moved in.

We brought the 2 big dogs today.

Hoss is in his kennel, new dog house and all. Pearl is standing at our back door, alternately yelping and whining. I'd have her in a kennel but I could only get one from work and I can't afford the retail cost of them.

So for now, Pearl has to run loose. Which you'd think she'd like. But no. Apparently she either needs to be kenneled or she needs to be inside. Maybe it's a security thing.

I'm wondering what she'll do when it gets dark.

Biscuit was happy to see them. Not that she's ever run around with them, but they're familiar to her. And Pearl did run around with her (she's 11 so she's a bit slow), while Hoss barked (he's too large to play with 12lb Biscuit). Biscuit's currently passed out on the floor.

The neighbor dogs all had a field day when we got here. And while mine ran around, barely making any sounds, theirs set the band loose. Especially this black and white dog in the corner. That dog ... non-stop. So much so that we moved Pearl's dog house to the other side of Hoss's so that neighbor dog can't see her.

Not that she's used the dog house since we've gotten here. She's too busy standing at our back door.

I'm exhausted. Really. Moving two large dogs in the van and then getting them situated ... mentally exhausted.

But this move marks the official end to my daily 40 minute trek (that's each way, thank you very much) to make sure the large 2 were fed in the evenings. I'm sure my dad would have fed them, but he'd have bitched about it. So now that they're here, that comes to an end.

And it marks us as being completely, fully, moved in.

Yay.

Shopping? What shopping?

There were plenty of sales today. Just nothing that we particularly wanted.

Ok no - there was one thing. K-Mart had a 5 piece kitchen table & chairs set for dirt cheap that I wanted to go see (we don't have a kitchen table). The price, the sale price that is, matched the quality.

Ew.

But we did find a Epson combo printer / copier / scanner for $24.99 at BestBuy. We weren't looking for one. It was just there and at a damned good price.

The stores weren't anywhere nearly as busy as we'd expected. We left the house just after 8 a.m., expecting hordes of people. Instead, we found light traffic and not so jammed aisles.

I'm still tossing the whole baby thing around. I'm not sure what we're going to do. I do know that I'm ok with the decision to use my bonus money to help make our house more of a home, though.

It's not that I suddenly don't want a baby. I'm sure y'all know better than that. It's just such a crazy ride and, while the 2ww is exciting in so many ways, I do enjoy not having to go through it and all that the treatments entail.

I dunno. I really did think I'd never be able to get pregnant. And getting pregnant, the blessing that it was, threw that out the window. But I know the chances of it happening a 2nd time without IVF are slim. Especially since we only have the 1 inj/iui chance left and it took 4 tries and a hysteroscopy the last time.

So ... no ... I don't know what we're going to do. But it's in the back of my mind, smoldering. It'll come to me when the time is right.

Happy day before thanksgiving!

So so much has been happening.

Mostly at work.

The house is still awesome. I love having our own place and I'm getting use to the quiet again. I take a lot of joy in laying on the couch or the floor with Biscuit or a cat.

It's those little things - like changing the shower curtain rod last night - that makes me smile.

This weekend will be busy. Not just with the holiday happenings, but with work. I have a lot to do still and I want to make sure it's all done correctly and well. So this 4 day weekend won't really be a 4 day weekend for me.

But at least I'll be doing it at home.

Nothin to see ...

So I didn't get a new keyboard. But I'm sure I will.

The thing with the bonus is ... I'm using it for the house.

I know. I went on about wanting to be punch drunk with the 2ww, but ... well ... I want my house to feel like a home instead of some 1/2 empty place to sleep. That and the fact that the amount wasn't enough to cover it all.

So I've used some of my bonus money to buy pictures and a few other odds & ends. I also want a docking station for my MP3 player. I don't have an iPod - I bought a Toshiba Gigabeat on Overstock.com with 40 gigs for just $173 last year. It does all the same stuff, but it's not the super thin, highly sought after item the iPod is (which is tard, really).

Toshiba, though, doesn't make a docking station so I can listen to the music without the headphones and finding one that's not designed for the iPod is insanely hard.

So that's my next purchase. That and one of those silent keyboards. Cuz this bitch is driving me bonkers.

I'm really here ...

I've just been too busy to post.

So busy that I typed that first line yesterday and had to go do something.

We've been in our house almost 2 wks already. Hard to believe!

Ok ... I can't take this loud keyboard. I'm a loud typer to begin with, but this ... this is horribly distracting.

I may buy a keyboard while I'm out today.

Then I'll post.

Some things ...

Lessons learned:

Biscuit doesn't know that not all cats have claws. And if smacked in the head by one without any, she will still roll her face around on the floor.

Cats raised with dogs don't give a new, different dog a second glance. Mackie, the old man, spends as much time as possible rubbing against Biscuit, causing her to look terrified. The other cats think of her as just another piece of furniture.

Except when being chased. Biscuit's new fave past-time is cat chasing. Unless the cat makes it to the kitchen. Then all chasing stops as Biscuit's nervous on linoleum.

Getting frisky with the dog in the bedroom causes interruptions at the worst of times. Really.

Hot dogs and mac & cheese made in your own kitchen is the best you'll ever eat.

Sudden privacy can actually be a bit intimidating and scary.

Lamps are not overrated.

I win!

I'm excited to say that I'm on our computer at home! Yay!

Not only do I have a rosie talky blog playing, but I have 3 other windows open. And none of them are stalling. Double yay!

I can even follow Katie's tag! You know - where you go to Google and do a search for your name followed by the word "needs".

So here goes:

Angela needs to consantly feel the presence of God. (Well ... sometimes this is very true.)

Angela needs a family who will access and work with a therapist. (Either that or better drugs)

And the best one? There's a whole book on what Angela needs! Really. Go here.

You can't top a whole book, people.

I need more than 24 hours in a day ...

I keep thinking about time.

I have this weird thing about time. As in - I have a constant need to know what time it is and I always feel like there isn't enough of it because I always have somewhere to go or something to do.

It's always - what time is it, where do I need to be by such & such time, how much time do I have until then .... ? Those sorts of thoughts are forever rattling around in my brain.

Here's an example -

Right now it's just barely after 1pm. I know I need to leave soon, but I want to make sure the 2 dogs are fed their dinner before I go. If I feed them too early, they'll be pretty damned hungry before my dad feeds them in the morning (I'm going to leave some food for them so I don't have to trek here before work tomorrow).

But it'll be dark just after 5pm and Patrick (who's at home, building Hoss's new dog house) and I still need to go to WalMart and do some food-stuff shopping.

It'll take me about 40 minutes to get from here to home. So when to feed the dogs and leave so they won't be all starving in the moring and I won't get home too close to dark?

And those thoughts didn't just occur to me. I've been thinking along those lines since I got here a couple hours ago.

If that's not enough, I'm already trying to figure out how long it'll take me to get home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, feed the animals, and then come back to Lenoir City for an early Thanksgiving dinner with my mom and that side of my family. And that's more than a week away!

This has to be part of some kind of disorder, no?

As a side note - I have been reading everyone while I'm here. I haven't commented because my dad's computer sucks ass and half the time the page won't even load. When I leave comments for people, I'm usually at work and on a computer and connection that doesn't hate the internet. So please don't think I've just come here, blogged, and jetted. We'll have cable inernet at home as of tomorrow, so I'll be back to commenting after then. Until that time, though, just know that I'm here and I'm reading.

I'll have internet at home on Monday!

We ended up calling a plumber place after all. Patrick, while sure he could do the work, said he'd feel a lot more secure knowing it was done by someone who does it for a living. So a really nice guy came out from a place we called and replaced the entire plastic line with a copper one and even added a bend (or something or other) so it wouldn't have to be stretched like the other one was.

The best news? Digging the hole ourselves saved us about $1200. Yep. $1200. While working on the pipe, the guy asked Patrick if he'd like to know how much it would have cost had he not already dug the hole. He said that to pick up a shovel, it was a minimum charge of $300. If he had to bring a Bobcat, it would have been at least $1200. And as our line was about 3 ft down, he'd have brought a Bobcat. So all told, it cost $199. And almost $100 of that was for parts. So yay.

My best friend, Marc, doesn't have a washer and dryer. When his roomie moved to Florida, he took the washer & dryer with him. So Marc had basically just been living out of the clothes in his closet. Which, as anyone who knows a gay man knows, was a substantial amount of clothing. He brought his dirties last night and christened our washer & dryer. When I went to help him get the clothes out of his car, I was all ... uh ... good God! Really. The man brought one laundry basket and about 3 garbage bags full of clothes. It wasn't that I minded. Not at all. I was just amazed at how much clothing this man has. I mean, I've seen his closet a gazillion times. But damn ... all that and he still had clothes left!

We're getting more settled and the place is starting to feel more like a home to me. Patrick said as soon as he walked through the front yard that first day, it felt like his. A small part of me still feels like a visitor, but I'm sure that will change as we get more things arranged and get the animals moved in.

Speaking of animals ... Biscuit is driving me nuts. She follows me from room to room. If she's sleeping on the couch and I get up for any reason, she's right behind me. I can't even pee alone. I know she's nervous and a bit scared as she gets use to living somewhere else, but gah ...

Maybe having a few cats to chase this evening will give her something else to do.

Yet more boring house stuff ...

We have water! Yay!

My husband, who is an awesome man, found the leak in the first place he dug. He was all sorts of muddy by the time my dad & I got there with our bed and there was a 3ft deep hole in our yard, but his exhausted self was all sorts of glad. Me too, as his being able to do things like this saved us hundreds of dollars. I'm quite proud of the guy.

So he put a boot (I still have no idea what that is) on what turned out to be a costly teeny, tiny split, which completely stopped the leak, and is going to work to replace that entire section today. The boot should work fine, but he's nervous it'll split or break at some point and we'll be back at step 1.

I picked up a cheapie set of pots at the dollar general store, so we were even able to have real food last night. Nothing grand as we really don't have groceries, but it was the first time we cooked in the house. So that's something.

The smoke smell is better. I'll need to paint the kitchen next, but it's not as pressing as it was.

We still don't have all the animals with us yet. Biscuit has spent the last couple nights with us, last night hogging the middle of the bed (at just 12lbs, it's amazing how much room she can take). My dad brought her brother, Charlie, with him yesterday and Charlie, being Charlie, managed to escape the yard when the guys were coming through the side gate. 10 minutes and 3 houses across the street later, I had him back in the yard. The trick? Dogs that barked, which kept him interested in a specific area, and my pretending a rock was food I was eating. The dog can't pass up food and I snatched him up when he came close to check it out.

Anyway ... the cats and my other 2 dogs are still here at dad's. If I can't get Hoss's kennel from work sometime today, it'll be next week before I can get him moved. The cats ... eh ... they can technically be moved anytime now. Except this morning I didn't empty the van before coming over here and there's no way I can chuck them in the back with all that stuff.

But I'm no longer worried about the old girl, Pearl, being a barker. Both houses that border ours have 2 dogs each and they're barkers. Really really barky. So if the neighborhood has put up with them, there's no worries about Pearl.

So we're good. Still getting things straight (silly me for thinking we'd be all moved in within just a couple of days ... hah!), but we're almost there.

Welcome to home ownership ...

Most of our things are moved. Although I ended up not being as motivated as I intended to in my last post. I ended up taking a quick nap on the couch and didn't get a thing packed up until Patrick got here a couple hours later.

The previous owners smoke. And apparently smoked in the house. The house is seriously airtight. Which means the whole place reeked of smoke and you could see a huge difference between where the pictures were and the rest of the walls.

Which made us decide to paint a lot sooner than we had planned.

So that set us back another couple hours as we toured Home Depot - he for dog house building supplies and I for coordinating paint colors.

My best gay, Marc, came over and helped me paint the living room (the largest offender in the home) and our bedroom (which was this awful mint green color) while Patrick went back to the family farm and picked up the shiffer (sp?) robe (it's like an armoir), 2 really old couches, a chair, and other miscellaneous stuff.

The best part? The KUB guy showed up to read the meter for the switch-over and announced that we have a water leak somewhere.

Yes folks, our home has a water leak somewhere between the meter and the house. And we, figuring the sellers were already being generous with the closing costs and the inspection was so awesome, didn't ask for a home warranty.

Yay.

Patrick has been all over the crawl space and even replaced a pressure valve (there's a water regulator to help conserve water), and the slowed the meter a bit, but there's a leak somewhere outside. And nope, our home owner's insurance doesn't cover service lines. And KUB doesn't service service lines either.

So amid all the Yay! for buying our own home with a fantabulous yard, there's also an Aw Fuck! for the water leak as that's going to cost a pretty penny.

Biscuit, our small dog, spent the night with us last night. I came by yesterday to get a couple more things and scooped her up, too. She's not use to a fenced-in yard. She's use to being able to run loose. So each trip to the back yard turned into a labor of fence inspecting. She met 2 of the neighbor dogs (who bark - a lot. Which makes me feel better about my own dogs barking hah), laid on the couch, followed me from room to room, barked at the kids coming home from school, and spent the night sleeping between my legs. We don't have our bed yet (it's still here, but on today's agenda), so that meant I couldn't even turn over. Cuz ... well ... you don't disturb sleeping animals, duh.

I spent most of yesterday with a paint fume induced headache, which included wanting to puke. A couple of TheraFlu pills knocked me out and took care of the headache, thank God. I was absolutely miserable.

So I'm back at dad's right now. Biscuit is running around with Charlie (her littermate and best bud) and I'm just hanging out. Patrick has to work this morning, but then he'll head here to get the bed and the last of our things, then we'll head back to the house to get the dog house built. I need to run to the dollar store and get a few cat pans so I can get the cats moved, and a hamper.

I also need to call someone about that leak. Argh.

Why yes, I did start this at 4:30 A.M. ...

My dad helped me load our things from the garage yesterday morning. These were things that were still in boxes from when we moved here. And because I threw a lot of things out when we moved, it took about 20 minutes.

I hung out at Marc's house for the rest of the morning, waiting for the seller to call and hand over the keys. Marc lives about 10 minutes from the house and I figured I'd rather be there than here, where it would have been closer to 40 minutes. So when she called around 12:15, I was ready to go.

A bit later, Patrick and I were able to get more things from his family's farm - the fridge, his grandfather's buffet, and a buttload of stuff that we got for our wedding that his mom had been holding for us. It was pretty nifty going through those bags last night - I'd forgotten how much stuff we actually got at the bridal shower and the wedding itself. Aside from pots and pans (which we have none of, thank you very much), our kitchen is fairly well-stocked with ... kitchen type things (did I mention it's now 4:40 A.M.? My brain isn't working yet). We have a ton of dishtowels, a new toaster, a new electric can opener, a new coffee pot with several boxes of Geneva coffee (thanks to dad), a new Deluxe George Forman grill, and a new waffle maker. We also have lots of Pyrex dishes. I thought we had a couple of Corningware casserole dishes somewhere in there, but it seems I was wrong. Oh and a fancy spice turnstyle rack thingy. I hadn't seen any of these things since right after our wedding, so it was kind of like opening the gifts all over again.

I was putting that spice racky thingy together and Patrick said "Oh, nice rack" and I said "Why thank you" bahaha

We'll spend most of today getting the rest of our stuff moved - the washer & dryer and the mini fridge, our bathroom stuff, my drugs (yes, I'm taking my needles, alcohol wipes, and leftover meds ... oy), the bedside table and the king size bed frame (although we won't be using the frame just yet), and our bedroom stuff, including the bed, as well as 2 couches and a chair from his mom's place.

What we don't have - a lamp (or two) and curtains for the living room, a dresser, pots & pans, a kitchen table and chairs, a shower curtain, and a tv stand. Oh and I want one of those Swiffer wet jets for the kitchen.

Anyway - yesterday was exciting. It's still hard to believe the place is ours, even though the kitchen is currently filled with boxes of odds and ends and there's already towels in the linen closet and some boxed & canned food stuff in the cabinets. And rather than wash all of our packed dishes by hand, I loaded them up in the dishwasher and let it do the work while we ran to his family's farm.

I also need to run to the local low-cost vet office to pick up a bunch of flea drops for the animals. Then tomorrow they'll be the last things we move.

Speaking of ... it's now 5:23 A.M. and I should probably get off my tush and get the last bit of stuff in this house packed and moved to the van. That way there'll only be the bed and the last of the large stuff to contend with when my dad gets up (I volunteered him and his trailer bahaha).

And since last night was the last night I'll be spending here, that means I officially won't have internet until we can get it installed at home.

So ... I'm off to find a random box for my bathroom stuff!

Got a bit excited there ...

Ok, so I spoke a bit too soon hah

Don't get me wrong, we should be able to start moving sometime tomorrow. But, for today at least, I still have computer access at the father unit's home.

Over the last few days, I called around for cable / internet connection prices. A lot of places are running what they call the "Triple Play" - you get cable, internet, and phone for something around $99 a month for a year. But we don't want or need a home phone. Both of us have cell phones and technology these days allows for better 911 usage if we need it. So why have a home phone? Other than to allow telemarketers call us, that is.

Pricing for just internet and cable / dish is really really ridiculous. Really. The lowest price I could find was $124 a month. And that was for just basic cable that included only the local channels. And the two dish networks that service this area use dsl, requiring you have an active phone line.

Puh.

Except for Knology, a smaller company that services only a handful of cities in the south. Their cost for internet and cable is $66 a month with no activation fees. And that includes a 7mbps cable internet and cable tv with all channels plus a premium channel. And that price is guaranteed through June of 2008. The downside is that the first available appointment was Monday the 12th. Ick. But the order confirmation lady sent a note to their installation department to see if they can squeeze me into any spare openings that may come up. It's just that I won't really have much notice - they'll call and one of us will have to be available.

I'm looking forward to having this week off. I worked almost all day yesterday (I was just 1 hour shy of a full shift) to meet with my direct reports and prepare to be off. I have a lot I need to have ready to report by 12/1, so I was going to bring my laptop with me so I could get a good chunk of some stuff done during the week. But then I said ... Fuck it. There's been a good bit of drama at work lately and I need the time away. Plus I deserve to be able to fully enjoy moving into our new home without anything else hanging over my head.

For the record, my period hasn't started yet. I know it's waiting for the opportune time - like Wednesday, when we should be officially moved in. The two unfallible warning signs have poofed and I have no other signs yet, such as sore boobs, so I'm thinking this is going to be one of those months where I get no warnings and the bitch just shows up.

Ta for now ...

This will probably be my last post for a number of days.

Why?

Cuz we're moving!

We should be able to start moving our things sometime Monday. And as I have a new class coming in, I need to take this coming week off work (which works out since we can start moving sometime Monday). And since the previous owners haven't disconnected their cable yet, I can't even sign up to have ours turned on.

No cable = no internet.

But please know that even if I can't read for a few days, I will be sure to check everyone's blogs when I'm finally connected at home.

So y'all be good (or good at it har har) and, most importantly, stay safe.

It's ours, beeyotch ...

And we're done! We are now official home owners! yay!

There was some drama early on, as the lender was scrambling to buy the interest rate back down to where she had quoted us. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but some small change at the underwriter's caused the interest rate to go up.

From what we can tell, the lender lady cut her pay quite a bit to make it happen.

Then it was discovered that the sellers could actually pay the amount of the closing costs we'd originally agreed upon, not just the 3% the lender changed it to at the end of last week. So that caused yet another delay. (Which means the heiffer flat out lied to me when she said it was a scheduling conflict that was making it necessary to change our morning closing time to the afternoon.)

So when we got there at 1:45 for our 2pm closing, the title company still hadn't gotten the documents and had apparently spent a good chunk of the day making and receiving phone calls.

But all ended well and everyone ended up very satisfied with what they got.

And ... and ... the sellers will be out on Sunday. The Mrs would like to go back Monday morning and make sure it's all vacuumed and stuff, but I honestly don't care. The place was spotless yesterday morning and they have very little stuff left to move. I don't see them suddenly trashing the place.

But ... I'll pick up the keys on Monday and we can start moving stuff! I think I may spend a good part of the weekend going through the boxes we have stored in my dad's garage to make sure it's still somewhat organized.

Now to get cable and internet set up!